Children of Gattaca
by Lady of the Storm
Summary: When the space colonies of the Kingdom of Scandinavia secede and form the Republic of Apollo, another military faction is born. How would their agenda affect the story of the Archangel and the outcome of the war? And what happens behind the closed doors of a supposedly neutral nation?
1. Chapter 1: The Invisible War

_Children of Gattaca_

Chapter 1: The Invisible War

* * *

It all came down to a choice between three wires. Two of them would detonate the bomb; the third would make her home free. Carmen had to consider her options. It was only her life, and the lives of everyone in the colony, that depended on this next move. The cache of five IEDs was enough to destroy Morgenroete and then some. Given the right circumstances, that could potentially be enough to unwind the entire structure of Heliopolis. Carmen could only hope that even if she failed, the worst-case scenario would not come true. She also hoped to not fail. Life seemed so much more precious now that she was staring into the jaws of death.

She lay down next to the warhead that was a little over her body length.

"I need a break," she said into her headset.

_"_That's fine, Major," the man on the other line said. "Just breathe. You're doing great."

Carmen closed her eyes and imagined the bridge. Every officer must be crowded around Chief Master Sergeant Briggs, watching the screen with baited breath. They had all been forced into silence by the weapons specialist, who had demanded that none of them partake in backseat bomb disposal advice. _It's just you and me,_ he had said. _You be my eyes and ears and I'll do the work for you._

That had been two hours ago. Together they had painstakingly gone through and defused four of the five bombs. But this last one, the warhead, was proving to be a challenge. The wires were so tangled, Carmen had to triple check each one before making a move. Twice already she had caught herself from cutting the wrong one.

Following Briggs' advice, she focused on forcing slow, regular breaths. After a few moments she felt calmer. Her hand was steady when she wiped it across her sweaty forehead. There was no room to stand on the shaft. She had to gently roll over, careful to not disturb the other bombs, to get back to the warhead.

"Okay," Carmen said. "Let's do this."

Her fingers trailer over wirework until she found the aforementioned three. She took them in her hand, isolating them as best she could.

"Describe them again, Major."

"Two green. One blue."

"Are you sure? There's not much light there. You must be sure."

Carmen breathed in, breathed out, and made certain she was sure.

"Good. That is good. It means we're in the home stretch. What you need to do, is cut the middle wire."

Carmen put her flashlight between her teeth and stuck her hand into the bomb, blindly tracing the wires. The first time it was the green. The second time it was the blue. The third time it was blue again, but she wasn't sure if it was the same one. Tension was beginning to build in her stomach. Carmen closed her eyes and forced it down. _Focus, _she told herself. _Don't worry about anything else. It's just you and your target. _The fourth time it came out green. The fifth time it was green again. The sixth time – again, green. Carefully, she took the cutters and positioned them around the wire. Doubt crept in. She pushed it down, took a final breath, and didn't hesitate.

A second passed. Two. Three. She counted them by heartbeats. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Only then did she let the breath out.

Over her headset she heard it echoed with a collective sigh. It was soon followed by applause and calls of congratulations. Briggs was probably getting mobbed with pats on the shoulder.

With the utmost care, Carmen gathered her tools and crawled out of the nest of bombs. A few meters away there was an opening above her. She climbed through it, closed the door, locked it, stood, and stretched.

"They'll be fine for now, right?" she asked.

"No one is going to be able detonate them," Sergeant Briggs replied. "They'll need to be moved out of the colony, but that's not for you to do. As long as there is no explosion in the vicinity, these won't be going off anytime soon."

Carmen let herself relax.

"You did good, Major," Briggs said. "I imagine we saved quite a few lives today."

"I suppose we did."

"Colonel Romanov has instructed me to say that you have been granted the rest of the day off."

Carmen looked up towards the ceiling. She must have been in the lowest level beneath Morgenroete. It would take her another few hours to sneak back onto the surface without being detected.

She checked her watch. It was now seven in the morning in Heliopolis.

"I'll consider it," she said.

* * *

Carmen stretched out on the grass and sighed. This, she decided, was the life. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the birds were chirping. She had a glass of scotch in hand and a physics equation in her head.

"5.18 Joules," she said.

Kira typed the value into his computer. He ran the program and, after a few moments, there was a resounding beep of success.

He blinked. "It worked."

"Of course it worked. I'm brilliant, don't you know?" Carmen said as she took another drink.

Kira stared at the glass. "Should you really be doing that?" he asked. They were at a public park after all.

"What? This?" Carmen held up the scotch. "If anyone asks, say it's apple juice. I had a rough morning."

"People would consider you odd."

"And how would you consider me?"

Kira thought about it. 'Odd' was certainly an acceptable term. Carmen was the only graduate student to sport several ear piercings as well as a tattoo on the inside of her right arm. Her wardrobe tended to be anything but the business casual the other TAs wore. Today, for instance, she had chosen a white linen button-down shirt over skinny jeans and worn out black sneakers. Her long, blonde hair was usually loose, and she had a pair of oversized reading glasses that Kira swore she didn't need.

But it was more than just appearances. There was something about Carmen's attitude and the almost unquestionable way she lived by her own rules. One time, while the lab she was supervising was going late into the evening, she had ordered pizza and beer for all of the students. Professor Kato had a field day with that one. How she was able to get off on it, nobody knew.

And yet, no one could deny she was a brilliant aerospace engineer and one of the coolest TAs in the department. Kira considered himself grateful that she had asked him to be her research assistant.

"You are," he said carefully, "as odd as you need to be to function."

Carmen smiled. "I like that one. Okay, tell me what the readout on the photons says."

Kira looked back at the computer and read out the information. Four months ago Carmen had approached him with her proposition. The culminating project that would earn her a Master's degree, she had said, was a mobile suit design.

"Like one of those ZAFT GINNs?" Kira had asked.

"Better."

And so it was. Kira was amazed at the concepts that were going into the frame and the OS. He told Carmen that he couldn't wait to see it built.

She frowned at what he was saying about the laser photons. "That doesn't sound right."

"What do you mean?" he said. "They're aligning just fine."

"The calibration is wrong. We're off by two tenths. If we were shooting at a target one hundred meters away in a perfect environment, we would miss it by..." She paused to calculate, "1.7 centimeters."

By now Kira was used to her intense attention to detail, the same way he was used to her drinking. "So how do we fix it?"

Carmen mulled it over her liquor "I have no idea. Computer."

Kira placed it in her outstretched hand and leaned back. He knew what was going to happen. Carmen would stare at the screen for some time – the longest he had recorded was a little under two hours – until her brain magically gave her an answer. At this point, there was nothing for Kira to do. He pulled out his tablet and switched on the news.

"_…The Kaohsiung spaceport has fallen into the hands of ZAFT. We can only look to what Earth Alliance's next move will be," _the anchor said, finishing up a report. "_In other news, talks between the Atlantic Federation and the Kingdom of Scandinavia, regarding the declaration of independence of Scandinavia's space colonies, have reached a conclusion."_

The screen switched to an AF representative at a press conference. "_The Atlantic Federation does not recognize the so called 'Republic of Apollo' as an autonomous country," _he said. "_They are nothing more than boisterous rebels and should be treated as such. Scandinavia will get them under control soon enough."_

"Huh," Carmen said.

Kira looked up. "You got it?"

"What? Oh no, not yet. Aren't those your friends over there?"

He looked over to see Tolle and Miriallia making their way over. He raised a hand in greeting. "Hey!"

"Hi there!" Mir called. "We were looking for you."

"What's up?"

"It's Professor Kato," Tolle said. "He's asking that you come into the lab now."

Kira glanced over at Carmen, who was still looking quite intently at the computer. "Um… I'm kinda busy."

"He seemed insistent."

"You can go, Kira," Carmen said, still not tearing her eyes from the equations. "I'm done with you for the day."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, totally. Be free, young grasshopper."

Kira shrugged and packed his things. The three said their goodbyes to Carmen, who in response silently toasted them.

"Was that alcohol she was drinking?" Mir whispered as they walked away.

"Apple juice, actually," Kira said.

Once they were out of sight, Carmen closed her computer. From her pocket she fished out a phone. There were two messages waiting for her.

The first said: _C. Yula has docked. _

The second: _Requesting a flight of angels for T. Kato. _

Carmen stared at the screen. "Huh," she said.

* * *

The woman behind the security desk brought Harper's passport to eye level, scrutinizing his features. "You look familiar," she said.

He ducked his head and gave her one of his shy smiles. He knew how disarming they were on women. "One of those faces, I guess," he said.

It worked. She smiled back and scanned his passport without another word. A moment later the machine churned out a visitor's pass. "Have a nice day," she said.

"Thank you. Oh, hold on - "

The woman looked startled. "What?"

"You have some lint on your shirt." He leaned forward. "May I?"

She was too professional to blush, but not professional enough to say no. He could tell she was attracted to him, if only to his appearance. "Sure," she breathed.

His fingers dusted off the invisible lint, gently grazing just above her breast. "There," he said, making sure to not break eye contact, "All better now."

This time she did flush. "Please head on through," she said, turning away from him.

Harper smiled. "As you command."

A bored guard waved him through the metal detector. It didn't go off and he was let in without any more ceremony.

Harper considered himself grateful. These days it was harder and harder to obtain faked identification that worked on the security scanners. He was also grateful that, despite the japes his brother had been making, Harper still held a certain charm with the ladies. It had been almost too easy to swipe her card from the clip in her shirt pocket.

Following the instructions he was given, he went up two floors and used said ID to get into the engineer's lounge. As promised, it was empty. In the back there were lockers. He located number 221 and fished out a key from his pocket. Inside it was a duffle bag. Harper took it out and opened it.

Packed away were two guns, a switchblade, and - most importantly - an access key to get into the restricted sections of Morgenroete.

Harper let out a breath. "Thank you, Addie," he whispered.

The guns he stuck in his jeans, underneath his shirt. The knife went into a strap around his ankle. The security card was on a lanyard. He switched it with the visitors pass and, just like that, he looked like any other engineer who worked in the facility.

_So far so good, _Harper thought. _Now, to find the Lioness herself. _He knew that she was supposed to meet a Professor Kato soon to tour the new MS. If he found Kato, he would find Cagalli. No better place to start than his office.

A quick look at the directory told him the location. In no time at all, Harper was standing outside Professor Kato's office.

He knocked. Nothing. He tried to handle. Locked. He tried the woman's card. There was a click and the door opened…to reveal a deserted office.

Harper frowned. Kato's computer was still on, and his jacket was hanging on his chair. He couldn't be far, because then the computer would be off. At the same time, Kato couldn't be touring the mechs with the princess — he would have taken his jacket with him. Harper glanced down the hallway. There was one other door nearby, with a sign indicating that it was a classroom.

_Why not? _He thought.

Harper knocked and opened it. Several heads turned his way. Apparently, he had walked in on some sort of lab. Several students were clustered around a computer, while a few others were working with what resembled a frame for a mobile suit.

"Can we help you?" one of them, a guy in glasses, asked.

And there she was, leaning against a wall with folded arms and a beret covering her blonde hair.

"Miss Yula?" Harper said. "The professor will see you now."

She stared at him blankly. For a second he feared she would refuse to go with him — and then what? Would he have to force his way through a room full of civilian students? No, she was coming towards him, stepping out into the hall. He closed the classroom door behind her.

"Well?" she said.

"This way," he said, gesturing towards the office. Cagalli stepped in and stopped. She saw that there was no one in there.

Quickly, Harper locked the door behind him. She spun around and he knew that she was ready to attack.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Miss Athha" he said before she pounced. "I have been sent here for your protection."

It took a beat, and then her fists dropped. "Oh, you have _got _to be kidding me!" she said, exasperated. "Do you know what I had to do to get here under the radar? How many people I had to pay off just so that no one like you would come and babysit me?"

Harper found himself a little offended. "I would hardly call my job babysi-"

"No! Shut up! You listen now, and you listen good. I don't care what your commanding officer says. I am not leaving Heliopolis without finishing what I started. So if you think that you can just drag me out of here and put me on the first flight back to Orb, you have another thing coming."

Harper said, "I have no intention of doing any of those things."

That gave Cagalli pause. She glared at him. "Who are you?"

"First Lieutenant Harper Voigt of Her Majesties 21st Royal Air Squadron," he said without missing a beat.

"Her Majesties?" Cagalli blinked. "But I thought you were-"

"You thought wrong."

"Why is a soldier from the Kingdom of Scandinavia rescuing me?"

Harper said without a hint of amusement, "We found you first."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"What it means," Harper said, "is that you might appreciate a trip to Stockholm before you head home."

He knew what he just said seemed like a veiled threat, so he held up his hand before she could react. "Once you have seen what you came here to see," he said, "you may find that Orb is not what you thought it was. I, along with my superiors, feel that it is necessary for you to know exactly what your country is doing behind your back."

"_What does that mean?_" Cagalli emphasized each word.

He held out the hand in offering. "Let me show you." When she hesitated he quietly added: "Please. Trust me."

Cagalli bit her lip in frustration. "Where the _hell _is Kato?"

* * *

Professor Kato was busy being held at gunpoint.

"Please," he said, "I don't know anything."

Carmen aimed the gun a little lower and shot him in the kneecap. He howled in pain, doubling over as far as his bonds would let him. Carmen didn't so much as blink.

"Again," she said once he quieted down.

"Please," he whimpered. "Please."

She was getting fed up with his pleas. An hour ago they had been progress from him cursing her out, but she was on a deadline. So she had traded in the brass knuckles for a Walther P99 in hopes of speeding up the process.

Carmen kneeled down and, very gently, pushed her finger into his wound. His scream was loud and shrill.

"Again," she said.

"I don't know-"

Carmen briefly closed her eyes. "Just tell me," she said, "and this will all be over. Tell me and I will let you go."

He stared at her, afraid to believe her words. She pushed the finger in a little deeper. He bit back his grunts of pain.

"I - I don't- Ngh! It's the Earth Alliance!"

Carmen withdrew the finger.

Kato took shallow breaths. "They have mobile suits in the colony. Morgenroete has been developing them for months now. There's a ship to carry them. The crew just arrived today. They were going to launch soon."

There was a long moment of silence. Then Carmen said, "And?"

"That's it! I swear!"

She placed the muzzle of the gun against his other knee.

"Oh please, god no – ZAFT! ZAFT is coming!"

Quietly, she asked, "And how do they know?

His bloodied face was scrunched up in pain. "An informer," he was able to get out.

"And the bombs?"

"Set up by the EA. Contingency, in case someone tried to steal the MS."

Carmen made it a point to make eye contact with him, as if she was looking for a lie. She withdrew the gun. "Thank you for your honesty," she said.

His shoulders sagged. Carmen turned around and rolled up the sleeve of her right arm. "I have one more question, professor," she said. Her fingers trailed over the tattoo that ran from wrist to elbow. "Why is the princess of Orb here?"

She already knew. It had all made sense when the kill order came through. She just wanted to hear it from his mouth.

"I - I have nothing to do with that," Kato said.

What were a couple of un-pilotable mobile suits compared to the entire nation of Orb? The EA had more than enough resources to build them again. It was better to lure ZAFT in and then explode the entire facility, destroying both evidence and enemy. And if the princess of Orb died in a ZAFT attack on a neutral satellite… there was no question which side of the war Orb would be forced to choose.

It annoyed her that she had spent months working next to a double agent without realizing it.

Carmen turned and shot him straight in the head.

There was no sound. She had fitted a suppressor on the Walther. The death was silent. Blood sprayed the back wall and Kato's body slumped. Carmen lowered the gun and took out her phone. She replied to the message with another text.

_May flights of angels sing him to his rest._

Clean up was not her responsibility. All she had to do was put away her weapons and lock the door on her way out. None of the college students ever asked why this soundproof study lounge was never available for use.

As soon as she was out of the room, Carmen leaned against the wall and slid down until she was on the floor. She pressed her forehead to her knees. Her hands were shaking. It took a few minutes, but she was able to still them. Another few minutes and she got up.

She knew what she had to do next. She had to find Cagalli Yula Athha.

Then the attack hit.

* * *

Harper and Cagalli were barely out the door when the lights suddenly shut off. He grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait," he said.

It took a couple of seconds for the backup generators to kick in. As the lights came on people started poking their heads out of doors up and down the hall. "What's going on?" one of them asked.

"Were we hit by a meteor?"

"I think it's an attack," someone said.

"An attack? From whom?"

Before anyone could answer there was a violent shudder. The floor shook and Harper quickly pulled Cagalli into the doorway. "Do you think it's ZAFT?" she asked him.

"I don't know," Harper said.

Once the attack subsided another voice took charge. "Okay everyone, let's not panic," he said. "It's probably just a meteoroid, but let's be safe rather than sorry. Follow me into the shelter, please."

The speaker was the same bespectacled blonde who had greeted Harper. People were streaming into the hallway, crowding around the staircase. "It's no meteoroid," someone said. "This is a ZAFT attack."

When she heard those words, Cagalli broke away from Harper. Before he could react, another student yelled, "Hey! Wait!" and peeled off from the crowd, going after her.

Harper cursed and sprinted after the both of them.

And none too soon, for the next explosion was much closer. Harper barely had time to throw himself forward before the ceiling behind him collapsed. When he looked up he saw that the boy had caught Cagalli. The explosion had blown her hat off.

"You're a… girl?" the boy asked, incredulous.

"What did you think I was!" she demanded.

The boy blushed, unable to find an answer. Harper pushed himself up from the ground. Pieces of debris fell from his back. The boy noticed him. "Hey, you okay?" he said. "You could have been crushed under that."

Harper chose to ignore him. His eyes were only for Cagalli. "Don't ever pull a stunt like that again," he said. "If this is a ZAFT attack, then you are in more danger than I thought. You want to survive, you stay with me."

Maybe she realized that she had almost gotten him killed, for Cagalli gave him a curt nod in response.

Harper turned to the kid. "Our exit is blocked. Where are we?"

The boy frowned. "Up ahead is a restricted area. I don't know the codes to get in."

"I do," said both Harper and Cagalli.

The boy blinked, staring at the both of them. "Who are you two?"

There was no time to answer. They heard another explosion and the building shook again. Harper grabbed Cagalli's hand and took off with her. The boy followed close behind.

"Let go of me!" Cagalli yelled.

But he didn't, not until they reached a dead end and another locked door. Harper swiped his card, Cagalli inputted a five-digit number, and the three of them burst onto a catwalk.

Below them was a sight to behold. Even Harper had to stop and gape. The machines were magnificent. No wonder there was a bloody battle happening over them.

Cagalli, when she saw them, sank to her knees. "I knew it," she said, her voice full of despair. "The Earth Forces' new mobile weapons. Father, I knew you'd betray us all!"

That snapped Harper back into action. He tackled Cagalli down, covering her body with his, just as an EF solider let loose a stream of bullets in their direction. The boy had been smart enough to follow suit.

"You two okay?" the boy called.

"Get off me, you jerk - !"

Cagalli elbowed Harper in the ribs, hard, and he knew that she was just fine. "We need to get out of here," he said as he stood, pulling Cagalli up with him. "You, go check the shelter."

The boy blinked. "Me?"

"Do you see anyone else I could be talking to? Move!"

The boy ran off without another word of protest. Harper's eyes scanned for another exit. Amidst all the smoke and chaos, he saw it. An elevator. With any luck, it would still be functioning. Harper grabbed Cagalli's hand and ran for it. He pushed the button. Luck was with him.

On the other side of the catwalk, the boy had found the shelter. As long as he went in, he wasn't Harper's problem. Harper just personally didn't want to be in a shelter that was right next to a battlefield. The survival rate in those was low.

"It's at full capacity!" the boy yelled. The elevator door opened and Harper unceremoniously pushed Cagalli in before following. He saw the boy running towards them.

"Hey, wait - !"

Harper punched the button and the elevator doors closed before the boy could reach them.

"What are you _doing?_" Cagalli demanded. "He's a civilian! We can't just leave him on his own – "

She was effectively silenced when Harper pulled out his gun.

"We're in battle," he said as he checked the safety. "Keeping you safe is my number one priority."

"You can't just - "

"Yes I can," he said. "I'm the one with the gun. I give the orders now."

Harper meant it to be an intimidation tactic, and it worked. It must have been the look in his eyes. Cagalli did not say another word. Good. It was life or death now. He had to go into survival mode.

The elevator door opened. Harper checked the hall to make sure it was clear before ushering Cagalli out. He made a split-second decision, took her hand again, and started to running. So far so good. If they found a shelter that could take both of them, they could get out of this without much more bravado.

Then he saw _her_ coming down the corridor. He stopped.

When Carmen spotted him and the princess, she froze in surprise.

Harper didn't hesitate. He aimed his gun and shot at her. Carmen dove behind a wall of an adjacent hallway. Harper grabbed Cagalli and pushed her into the nearest room. He took his place at the doorway, his gun at the ready.

"What the hell – " Cagalli started to say before he shushed her.

Carmen put a hand to the wound in her side. It was a graze, and it wasn't bleeding too badly, but it hurt like a bitch. There was no fun in getting shot. She pressed her back flat to the wall.

"Good to know you're still alive, Lieutenant," she called.

"Can't say I feel the same," he yelled back.

The corridor shook and the lights flickered. Carmen found herself worrying about the bombs beneath the building. Briggs had said that they could still go off if there was an explosion near them.

"I don't suppose you could just let me go?" she said. "I have no business with you. I do want the girl, though."

"Funny," Harper said. "I don't feel like giving her up."

Then he realized what he had said and almost slapped his own forehead.

"How about we let her decide? Miss Athha, unlike your current captor, I am not in league with either ZAFT or the EF. I have no intention of using you as a hostage."

"That's bullshit," Harper said. "The first thing you'll do is use her as a hostage."

"Think about it," Carmen continued. "The Oslo spaceport was destroyed. The only way that man – who is currently threatening us both with a gun, I might add – would have been able to get here is through someone else's. I would wager it was one of ZAFT's."

Harper looked over to see Cagalli glaring daggers at him. "I haven't lied to you once," Harper hissed.

There was another shudder. Bits of dust rained down from the ceiling. Then Cagalli said, "You know what? I think you both are full of shit."

"You hear that, Lieutenant?" Carmen said. "She doesn't seem to like you very much. Maybe I should take a crack at rescuing her."

If Harper hadn't been focused on Carmen, he would have been able to stop the girl's attack. As it happened, he wasn't expecting the person he was trying to save to knee him in the groin. He crumbled to the floor. Cagalli jumped over him and ran down the hallway.

"Shit!" he heard Carmen yell. He looked up to see her run past him, in pursuit of the princess. He raised his arm and pulled the trigger.

He missed. But it was enough to make her turn around, come back, and kick the gun out of his hand.

"_Stop shooting at me!_" she yelled at him before going after her target again.

Harper groaned in pain as he forced himself to stand up and follow them. Then the hallway crumbled.

* * *

Cagalli was a fast runner. Carmen cursed her wound as she lagged behind the girl. _Damn. Damn. Damn!_

Then she remembered she had a gun. _One shot in the leg should incapacitate her, _she calculated before thinking better of it. Instead she fired a warning shot. It was enough to make Cagalli stop and face her.

"I'm not going to hurt you!" Carmen said.

"You just tried to shoot me!"

"If I had wanted to, I wouldn't have missed." The wound in her side pained her. Carmen had to put a hand to it. Blood was seeping into the white fabric of her shirt. _Damn. _

She realized that she needed to stop. There was no point in trying to be the one responsible for handing Cagalli back to the Orb forces. No point in trying to get the credit. There were far more important things for Carmen to concern herself with. On the top of that list was staying alive. Second on it was keeping Cagalli alive. And in no way was Carmen the best person to protect her. At the way this day was going, she should have already been dead three times over. And the day wasn't over yet.

"Listen," she said, "when I said I wasn't affiliated with ZAFT or the EF, I wasn't lying. I'm an officer who is loyal to Orb. Loyal to your father."

Cagalli wasn't so trusting. "So?"

"You have a smart head on your shoulders, Cagalli Yula Athha," Carmen continued to say. She tried to make herself sound as charismatic as possible. "It shouldn't be wasted on trying to figure out what your father is hiding from you. If you want to make a difference in this war, then make a damn difference. Screw what everyone else says. You want equality and justice? Then bring it about. But you need to trust those who are trying to help you."

She saw that she was sparking something inside the girl. She was appealing to something that Cagalli had probably wanted to do for a long time now. The princess said, "What are you suggesting?"

Carmen smiled. "People say there are two sides to this war. I'm part of the third."

Cagalli hesitated. Carmen knew that the bait was too good to pass up. Or maybe the Lioness was just weary of the crazy woman with the gun. It didn't really matter, as long as Carmen was able to grab her. Finally, Cagalli said, "Sure. Fine. Whatever. Just put the gun away."

Carmen complied. As soon as Cagalli was within reach, she grabbed her forearm and began dragging her along.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Cagalli yelled. She struggled, but in terms of sheer strength, Carmen surpassed her.

"Saving your goddamn life," Carmen muttered.

There was one shelter on the floor, and a security guard was posted outside it.

"We can only take one more," the guard said. "One of you will have to go down two floors and around the block to the next shelter."

"You get in there," Carmen said as she flung Cagalli through the door.

The guard noticed the red stain on her shirt. "Wait, are you bleeding?"

"Close the damn door!"

It wasn't so much her command as it was the nearby explosion following it that made him follow the order. Just as he locked the hatch the shockwave hit and Carmen found herself thrown against the wall. She unceremoniously slid to the ground. _Ouch_, was all she could think as she lay in a crumpled heap. Her wound was beginning to throb. Carmen forced the pain to the back of her mind. She needed to move if she wanted to survive.

With her hand to the wall, she was able to find her footing. Carmen looked around and considered the best escape route.

_Up_, she decided. She needed to go up.

She burst into the first staircase she saw and took it two at a time. The door to the roof was locked, but one accurate gunshot was all it took to open it. She got out and saw, for the first time, what kind of chaos was going on in the colony.

It only took one glance for her to think, _I need extraction. _

Carmen fished her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed a twelve-digit number. On the bridge of the _Völsung_, she imagined, a light was flashing and a pilot was being ordered to launch. Carmen could only hope that they got here before the building collapsed. She put a hand to the wound at her side, trying to stem the blood flow. All she could do now was wait.

And watch.

For something quite exciting was happening right in front of her. Out of the wreckage of one of the factories two mobile suits were emerging. _These are no ordinary mechs, _Carmen thought. They resembled the GINN that had just landed in between them, but the design was far more streamlined and efficient for agile maneuvering. Carmen was beginning to mentally compare them to her own design. She wanted, so badly, to get her hands on a machine and see how it worked.

Then one of them turned from grey to blue and white and Carmen fell in love. _Is that… phase-shift? I thought it was still in experimenting stages. Oh man, it looks so cool._

The second machine followed suit before launching. Carmen was disappointed to see it go, though she knew she had a better chance of surviving if there weren't two giant robots fighting in her vicinity. Or… maybe not.

The GINN was engaging the blue and white MS. _Were the Earth Forces able to salvage that one? _Carmen thought. _It's moving around so awkwardly - wait, no. No it's not._

Seemingly out of nowhere, the MS switched gears and began smoothly dodging the GINN's attacks. It rammed the GINN with its shoulder, then shot at it a few seconds later. The GINN responded with its own attack, only to be stabbed by two of the MS' knives. The head of the machine sagged.

_Wow, _Carmen thought.

The pilot of the GINN ejected. Carmen realized what was about to happen and hit the deck. Pain flashed through her from the gunshot wound when she hit the ground, then again from the shockwave. It was not a pleasant experience.

What was pleasant was looking up to see an Axel series MS come into view. Carmen felt a leap of joy and then a moment of trepidation. _Please don't let it be Meilin, _she prayed.

Carmen clambered up and searched for her phone. By the time she found it and raised her hand the Axel had spotted her and was coming in to land.

"Don't move."

Carmen froze. So he had finally caught up with her. She turned to see Harper standing by the stairs, his gun trained at her chest. Carmen noted how much he had grown in the last two years. She remembered him still looking rather boyish the last time she saw him. All of that was gone - his face was that of a man now, and his green eyes were cold and angry.

"You came all the way up here to see me?" she said lightly.

His expression remained stoic. "Captain Carmen Vagner, you are hereby arrested for crimes against crown and country," Harper said. "You are charged with treason, sedition, theft of government-owned weapons, illegal raiding, piracy, and crimes against peace. You will be taken back to Stockholm and tried by a military tribunal."

Carmen blinked. "Goodness, that's a long list," she remarked. "And haven't you heard? It's Major now."

"Not according to the law it isn't."

"Not according to _your _law, you mean."

The wind picked up as the Axel landed next to them. This threw Harper off. The MS that was backing her up had a much bigger gun than he did.

"Back off, Lieutenant," Carmen said.

He wasn't stupid. Harper knew he didn't stand a chance. He took off.

Carmen watched him go until she was sure he couldn't shoot her. Once she turned, she saw the Axel offering its palm to her. Carmen ran onto the extended hand. It brought her up to the cockpit. When it opened, she clambered in.

"Oh, thank god," Carmen said when she saw the pilot. "I thought you were your sister."

"Don't tell me you two _still _fighting?"

"Girls fight forever, Jin," she said, situating herself out of his way. Behind his seat she saw a Heckler & Koch UMP. Carmen smiled at the sight of it.

"Hey Jin?"

"Yeah?"

Carmen looked at the monitor to see where the victorious machine was standing. "How about you and I go get ourselves a new mobile suit?"

* * *

Author's Note: Thus begin the stories of the children of Gattaca. Thank you for reading the first chapter, and I hope that you return to continue the story when it is updated.


	2. Chapter 2: Truth and Grit

_Children of Gattaca_

Chapter 2: Truth and Grit

* * *

Kira, with the help of Sai and Tolle, was just laying down the Earth Forces officer on the nearest picnic table when the mobile suit landed. He tensed at the sight of it. The machine didn't appear to be hostile, but at this point he couldn't be sure about anything. He had just seen his childhood friend attack him and steal a military weapon - how much worse could things get?

The MS kneeled and the hatch opened. A figure jumped out and nimbly landed on the ground. When she straightened up, Kira saw that she was leveling a sub-machine gun at them.

"We can do this nice and simple. You give us the MS and no one gets - Kira?"

They stared at each other. A thousand questions popped into Kira's head.

But it was Carmen who beat him to the punchline. "What the flying fuck are you doing?"

Apparently things could get a lot worse.

* * *

"Ouch! That hurts, asshole."

"Stop whining. You want to have a scar?"

Carmen bit back her retort. Jin had gotten a much higher score during EMT training than she did. If she had to sew herself up, the result would have been a bloody mess.

"Just lie still," a brown-haired girl encouraged. _Miriallia, _Carmen recalled. _Her name is Miriallia._ She had been one of Carmen's students the previous semester. Miriallia was the one who always came to office hours. Now she was the one taking care of the two wounded soldiers. On the other table lay a woman in an orange jumpsuit. Jin had already seen to her wound.

Hovering off to the side, Kira observed. "What happened to you?" he said.

"I was shot."

"Who shot you?"

She sighed. "Someone who does not like me very much."

Jin pulled another stitch tight. "Our Carmen here isn't very good at making friends."

"I thought we were friends."

"You are my immediate superior. There's a difference."

She thought about it. "Fair enough."

"Superior?" Kira echoed. "Are you with the Earth Forces? Is that why you want the Strike?"

"What? No. Oh god, no. Absolutely not."

Jin did another stitch. "You realize that if you had said yes, he would have probably given it to you?"

Carmen glared at him. "Not exactly having my best day here, Jin."

"Clearly," he said. He finished off his handiwork, opened a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and unceremoniously doused the wound with it. Carmen gave a cry as her body convulsed, then dropped like a weight.

"What did you do?" Kira demanded, stepping forward.

Jin applied a gauze pad over the sutures. "Don't you worry about her," he said. "Carmen can handle a little bit of pain. She'll come around shortly." He looked up, regarding the boy. "You're Kira, right?"

"Yes."

"You were the one piloting that mobile suit." It wasn't a question, but Kira still felt like he should at least nod.

Jin frowned a little. "How?"

"What do you mean?" Kira asked wearily.

"It takes months, years even, to train to be a mobile suit pilot," Jin said. "How in the world did you manage to learn everything in two minutes? Unless you're lying about being a civilian."

"I'm not!" Kira said, suddenly defensive. "I just… the operating system was familiar. The research I've been helping Carmen with… well, I took the hypothetical and made it practical."

"Oh," Jin said. "Well, that makes all the difference."

He turned to stare at the Gundam. Two of Kira's friends - Jin didn't recall their names - were messing with it, talking about how cool the mech was. Jin agreed with them. It really was a beautiful machine. Overpowering the handful of teenagers would have been easy enough if he and Carmen were trying to just get the MS. Now he knew why Carmen had changed face on a dime and acted concerned, even offering medical assistance. She wanted more than the Gundam. She wanted the genius pilot as well.

_Can he be recruited? _Jin wondered. _A Heliopolis college freshman. What circumstances could possibly interest him in joining - let's face it - a band of glorified pirates? _

He heard a low moan behind him, but it wasn't Carmen. It was the EA officer waking up. Immediately, the girl named Mir was on hand. "Good to see you're finally awake. Hey, uhhh - Jin, is it?"

Jin knelt down by the woman. "You should lie still," he said. "Your wound was superficial, but you did lose quite a bit of blood. I cleaned it, applied a glue adhesive, and wrapped it up as best I could. You'll need to see a doctor as soon as this is all over."

She finally focused on him, first on his face, then on his flight suit. "Who are you?" she said.

Jin pondered the best answer before saying, "A friend."

Mir offered the woman a bottle. "Would you care for some water?"

She tore her eyes away from Jin. "Oh. Thank you."

As the she took a sip, one of the boys in the cockpit of the MS said, "This so called Gundam is awesome!"

The woman sprung into action. "Get away from that machine," she yelled, pulling out her firearm. She fired a warning shot. Jin quickly raised his hands and backed away from her, trying to show that he was no threat. He glanced over to where Carmen was lying. The Heckler & Koch was next to her on the table.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kira said. "Stop! They're the ones who carried you out while you were unconscious -"

He stopped talking when the woman pointed the gun at his head. "I am grateful that you saved me," she said coolly. "But you kids were exposed to a top military secret. It's not something that civilians should be handling. All of you, over here."

There was no point in trying to argue with someone who had a weapon. They all obeyed, grouping together in her line of fire. Jin noticed how the rest of the group edged away from him, as though they were trying to establish that he was not one of them. He looked back again to the body of his comrade. _Come on, Carmen. Wake up already. _

"Your names," the woman said.

In turn, each of the kids rattled off their names. When it was Jin's turn, he answered with, "Jin Zhang."

The woman's gun lingered on him. "You, I take it, are the pilot of that Axel?"

His flight suit made it obvious enough, so he answered with, "I am."

It had not been an unreasonable hope that few would recognize the make of his mobile suit. Scandinavia was not exactly famous for going into foreign countries with military weapons. The first time Axels had truly been used in battle was during the destruction of Oslo, and that had happened around the same time that the Earth Alliance declared war on the PLANTS, followed by the consequent bombing of Junius Seven. Besides, Axels were a slightly inferior model to the GINN, and no one cared about about almost-as-good machines.

But this officer appeared to have studied her politics. "You are aware that you do not hold rights as a prisoner of war?" she said.

Jin met her cool gaze. "Are you really in a position to tell me what rules we should be following? Especially now?" He glanced rather pointedly towards Kira.

She seemed to get it "Right," she said, facing the rest of the group. "My name is Murrue Ramius. I'm an Earth Alliance Forces officer. It's is my unfortunate duty to tell you people that I cannot permit any of you to leave. Despite the circumstances, you have witnessed a highly classified military project. Until I can contact my superiors regarding this, you will have to stay with me."

This statement was met with general outcry.

"Are you crazy?"

"That doesn't make any sense - "

"We're _neutral -_"

"What are the Earth Forces doing here anyway - "

Murrue silenced them with two more warning shots. "Quiet down! You kids don't understand anything, do you? How can you distance - "

She was cut off by another gunshot. This one wasn't a warning. It only barely whizzed over her shoulder, missing her, and came uncomfortably close to hitting Jin in the face. Murrue swung around. She was met by the blonde-haired woman who was still lying flat on the table, but with a submachine gun pointed in Murrue's general direction.

"Are you insane?" Jin yelled at her. "You could have hit someone!"

Carmen's speech was a little slurred. "I was aiming for _your _head.," she said. "Now, you. Yes you, crazy gun-totting lady. Seeing as I have established superiority in firearm size, I suggest you lay down your weapon and kick it towards my so-called _friend_ over there."

Murrue hesitated for a moment. During that time Carmen shifted her aim so she had a clear shot at Murrue's chest. That was enough. Murrue raised her free hand and gingerly knelt down, placing the gun on the ground. She kicked it to Jin, who hastily picked it up, put the safety on, and tucked it away.

"Good," Carmen said. "Jin, help me up."

"Screw you. You just tried to shoot me."

"If I wanted to, I wouldn't have missed. Now get over here. Don't make me pull rank on you."

Jin grudgingly came over and helped her sit up.

"Alright then," Carmen said once she was upright. "Murrue Ramius, you said your name was? What's your knowledge on the ship that is currently hidden in Morgenroete?"

Murrue blinked. "How did you know - ?"

"I'm very good at my job. Now tell me, what's the status on it?"

Cautiously, Murrue lowered her arms. She debated how much she should reveal, and chose to give away as little as possible. "It's a warship that was meant to carry the G-weapons. Before all of this happened, of course."

"Is it staffed?"

Murrue almost scoffed. "Of course it's staffed."

Carmen then turned to Kira. "Kira, see if you can contact them through the Strike."

Everyones weary expressions turned incredulous. Jin's remark summarized what was going to their minds. "You… _want _to get in contact with them?"

"Yes. Kira, would you please?"

"Uhh… sure," he said, stepping onto the wire that lifted him to the cockpit.

Carmen turned back to Murrue. "What can you tell us about this machine?"

Again, Murrue considered what to say. "What's it to you?"

Irritation flared across Carmen's face. "Oh, for goodness sake!" She put down her gun. "There. Now let's talk like the decent military strategists that we are. You do realize that that machine is probably going into battle again?"

"Of course I do," Murrue said.

"Then do what you need to do to get it ready."

* * *

David leaned over the captain's chair and whispered, "You look tense."

Nathan didn't so much as spare him a glance. "I'm not."

But David knew that he was lying. Nathan had two tells: his shoulders and his jaw. Both were clenched. David placed his hands on Nathan's shoulders and pushed, forcing the younger man to slouch. "Stop it," David said. "You're making your crew nervous. A captain must be nothing but an image of calm and confidence. They're going to look to you in how to act."

Nathan shrugged him off. "Why don't you take a seat, General?"

David didn't so much walk as saunter over to his own chair. "And get yourself a suit," he said over his shoulder. "Slouch and suit."

David took pride in his suits. This particular one was from a vintage designer and had been tailored to fit him. David liked looking professional, even when the rest of the crew wore an array of jeans and t-shirts. He would say, to anyone who would listen, how much he wanted the Apollo to get uniforms for their military. If they kept dressing like rebels and pirates, they would continue to be treated as rebels and pirates.

David sat down and didn't speak anymore. His eyes never left Nathan, and he saw that his gaze was only adding more stress on his young captain. Good. Nathan needed to learn how to deal with it. This was the first of what would be many sorties that he would have to lead. The _Volsung _was in his hands now, God help them all.

"Alicia," Nathan said, "how are the radio signals?"

The communications specialist responded, "Still being jammed."

Nathan pondered that information for a moment. "Fire up the cancelers."

This caused Alicia to swivel around to face him. "Is that wise?" she asked. "If we release that technology now -"

"I know what it would mean, Alicia," Nathan responded. "But we have good men in the field, and we can't help them. I'm willing to take this risk."

_Good choice, _David thought. _But stop being so familiar with your crew. _

Alicia hesitated, then followed through with the order. David rubbed his chin, waiting to see what happened. Soon they would know if the technology worked. Alicia frowned a little, listening through her giant headphones, adjusted some dials, then flipped a switch. There was a burst of static through the speakers, then a voice came in, loud and clear.

"_…. It's no use. I can't get through to them."_

"_Alright, thanks Kira. We'll try again later. Lieutenant Ramius is going to tell you how to equip the Strike._"

The first voice no one recognized, but the second was familiar enough to the crew. David looked over to see Nathan visibly relax for a moment, relieved. David frowned at that, but Nathan returned to business quite promptly.

"Video?" he asked.

"One moment."

It took two, but soon the camera in the Axel was activated and they had a view of the scene. Again, David couldn't help but notice Nathan's reaction when it came to Carmen. This time he tensed, and not without reason. Carmen looked like a fright, all covered in blood. But she was sitting up and talking, which meant that the wound mustn't have been too serious.

David looked over the rest of the characters. An older woman, close to her thirties, clearly must have been the aforementioned Lieutenant Ramius. The rest… oh God, they were just kids. All of them were teenagers, no older than sixteen. More importantly, every sign showed that they were civilians. What in the world were they all doing there? What were Carmen and Jin thinking?

While the lieutenant was giving orders, Carmen turned her head towards Jin. "_What are the doing back home?_" she asked.

Home meant the ship. Jin raised and lowered his shoulders a little. "_Not sure. I was supposed to get you and come back. This wasn't in the plan._"

"_And we can't contact them."_

Jin glanced to the Axel, looking almost perfectly into the camera. "_Well…_"

"_Well what?_"

"_That may not be _entirely _accurate._"

Now Carmen pointedly looked the same direction. David saw her putting two and two together. "_They didn't._"

"_The cancelers are available. Whether or not they're going to put them to use is anyones guess_."

Carmen exhaled a breath. "_They're on. If not now, then they will be soon._"

"_Are you sure?_"

"_It would be the most logical thing to do. Here, help me stand up._"

Jin gripped her elbow and helped Carmen steady herself. She appeared woozy, but on her feet. "_Let's look at it this way. If, hypothetically, they could see and hear us, then I would tell them that this machine is the only thing we even have a chance of salvaging. When ZAFT comes for it, and they will, without a doubt, they will capture it and kill the pilot. We can't let either of that happen. We may just have to swallow our pride and try working with them._"

_Why, Carmen? _David thought. _Just take the machine. Why are you invested in the pilot?_

But then he glanced at Nathan, and thought he already knew why.

* * *

Kira pocked his head out of the hatch. "I just put in on, right?" he yelled out.

"Yes! The Strike Launcher Pack!" Murrue Ramius shouted back.

"Which one is the power pack?"

"They're integrated onto one another. Just equip them as is."

Kira settled back in his seat and took the controls. It surprised even him how easy it was to work the machine. In no time at all he had strapped on the appropriate gear.

"Kira?" another voice called him. He looked out to see Carmen standing below. "May I come up?" she asked.

"Uhh, sure."

He sent down the cable. Carmen came up and kneeled on the hatch. She glanced over the edge, then looked at him. "You okay?" she asked.

"Umm, I guess," he said. "Haven't really thought about it."

Carmen considered that, and nodded. "You're alive."

"Yeah. I guess I am."

"Can I see the code you wrote?"

"Sure," he said. He scooted over and let her take the seat. Carmen took out the keyboard, put on her reading glasses, and began to look at the operating system. "Huh," she said as the scanned the screen. When she was done, she said, "How fast did you write this?"

"In about a minute. Just enough to get it to move."

"Huh," she said again. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. "You mind if I…?"

"No, go ahead."

Carmen pulled out a thin cord that she kept around her neck. At the end of it was memory stick artfully disguised in the form of a miniature Buddha. Carmen plugged in the tiny statue, selected an appropriate folder, and descended on the keys.

Kira watched the monitor and saw, from the screens that were coming and going, that Carmen was adapting the program they had been working on for months to this machine. He imagined that she would want to work out the nitty gritty details at a later time, but at least with this there would be a better OS than the one he had written during combat. Kira glanced down at her hands. Carmen's tattoo was peeking out from beneath sleeve. Kira had never before asked what the Chinese characters meant, but now, for some reason, he found himself rather curious. He was curious about everything. He thought he had known Carmen, but apparently that had all been a cover up. This, the woman who was handing out orders and getting ready for combat, was the real deal.

"Carmen?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"What… are you?"

Her hands froze. She looked at him. Somehow, her large glasses made her look almost innocent. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you're clearly not a grad student -"

"No, I am," Carmen said. "I really am a candidate for a Masters."

She was evading.

"You know what I mean," Kira said.

He saw that she was gritting her teeth. "I'm not sure how much I can tell you, Kira. There are a lot more people involved in all of this than you think. The only thing that is keeping them alive right now is quite possibly the fact that I haven't exposed them yet."

"Like Jin?" Kira asked.

"Not just Jin," she admitted. "Though I imagine that I'm already in quite a bit of trouble for letting him - "

_Bang_.

Their conversation was cut short. Both Carmen and Kira simultaneously looked at the monitor, seeing two machines enter the colony, clearly engaged in battle. "That's a ZAFT CGUE," Carmen said in a hushed voice. "And that's an Earth Alliance Mobius Zero." She immediately dove back onto the keyboard, typing faster than Kira had ever seen her type. There was an urgency that Kira had also never seen in her before.

"We're not ready," she muttered. "It needs more time. Fuck." Then she stopped, looked up, and sprang forward. "Jin," she yelled, half leaning out of the cockpit. "Hold them off!"

"I don't have that kind of firepower!"

"Just distract them long enough to stop them from attacking us! We'll back you up once the OS is done updating!"

"Hold on!" Murrue Ramius cut in. "You don't have the authority to be -"

But Carmen did not deign enough to let her finish her protest. She sat back in the seat and closed the hatch, effectively cutting off the other woman.

"Kira," she said, "you ready?"

"For what?!"

In response, the CGUE finally took notice of the Strike. It changed course and, instead of engaging with the Mobius, flew straight at them. Though the OS was still not ready, Carmen grabbed the controls and quickly maneuvered the mech to grab a rifle and shoot at the incoming MS. She missed.

"Damn," she whispered. "The calibration is off."

By then Jin had gotten to his machine and was shooting at their assailant. Even Kira could see that the Axel was hopelessly outmatched by the ZAFT machine. It would only be a matter of time - it happened. The CGUE took out its sword and cleaved the rifle cleanly in half. Jin was fast enough to let go of it and spring back, but Kira and Carmen were not so lucky. The shock caused their machine to sway.

Kira recovered quickly enough. As soon as he did, he pressed the phase shift button. "We don't have time for a perfect OS, Carmen," he said. "Use what we've got - "

He stopped talking once he looked over at her. Carmen's hand was placed at her side, where the bullet wound was, and she was very clearly trying to hide the fact that she was in pain. When she drew her hand away, there was fresh blood on it. Her stitches must have ripped.

"Kira," she said, her voice suddenly not as strong as it was before. "Take the controls."

There was no time to argue. Kira did as he was told, and just in time. He was able to throw up his arms to stop the attacking saber.

"Move," Carmen said, and Kira immediately saw why. They were precariously close to his friends, who had wisely hit the dirt to avoid getting killed. He pressed down on his thrusters and took to the skies.

Jin was retreating. As much as Kira felt like he was being abandoned to his own devices, he knew that Jin would have easily been killed had he stuck around. One-on-one fighting with the ZAFT machine would not have ended well, especially since it appeared that the only weapon Jin had had was that one rifle.

The Mobius too seemed to be of little help. It had resisted shooting at the ZAFT machine when they were so close to civilians, but now it circled around and began engaging with it again. It had one barrel gun left, and even that was easily removed by the CGUE. Whoever was piloting that machine was good.

"Cover your man," Carmen said, and Kira intercepted the CGUE before it was able to deliver the fatal blow to the Mobius.

"Gun," said Carmen. Even though it was risky to use it at such close distance, Kira did as she instructed. There had been a good chance that the CGUE would destroy it with its sword, but somehow Carmen's calculations were correct and Kira was able to pull the trigger first.

But his own calculations weren't quite so accurate. Or maybe the calibration really was off. The sensors had locked onto his target, but when he pulled the trigger the CGUE flew to dodge. The beam caught only its arm, and it didn't stop. It kept going until it hit the colony wall, and it tore through that like a hot knife through butter.

Kira's stomach jolted. Carmen softly cursed beside him. "I didn't think it would be that strong."

They didn't have time to think on their mistake too much. The CGUE was damaged, and retreating. Carmen was about to tell Kira to go after it, but another blast distracted her. She looked over to see a column of smoke rising and from that, an emerging stark white battle ship.

The sensors on the Strike locked on to it and the machine recognized its mother ship. _LCAM-01XA Archangel _appeared on the screen. As Carmen stared at it, then back at the CGUE. It had made good distance. Carmen wondered if it was still smart to go after it.

Then she thought better of it. According to her calculations, she had just escaped death for the fourth time that day, and god damn it all, the day still wasn't over yet.

Kira was breathing hard. "You okay?" Carmen asked.

"Yeah," he said. He didn't ask her for instructions again, but flew back to where his friends and the Lieutenant were.

"Everyone all right?" he asked over the loudspeakers when he landed. They waved in return, signifying that they were all alive and well. Kira knelt down and they clambered onto the hands of the Strike, awkwardly holding on to the fingers. He flew, as slowly as he could, towards the landing ship. As he approached, one of the hangers opened, and he gently set the machine down on it.

Kira navigated the Strike to kneel down again, carefully depositing the passengers in his hands. He straightened up, satisfied. Everyone was safe.

Carmen took off her glasses and wiped her forehead. She realized that her hands were shaking again, and she focused on stilling them. Suddenly, her vision blurred. She placed a hand against the wall, waiting for it to clear. "Kira," she said, almost meekly, "You're going to have to help me out."

Kira unbuckled his harness and looked at her with concern. "What's wrong?"

"I'm dizzy," Carmen admitted. "I lost a lot of blood. Going into battle like this… it was stupid. The regulations that are put on pilots are there on purpose. What we just did was incredibly unsafe. You really should consider getting a flight suit."

Carmen was mumbling now, but didn't much care. The adrenaline was wearing off, and she was becoming acutely aware just how much everything hurt. Her wound was throbbing again. She silently cursed Harper Voigt and his relatively good aim. This day was just one disaster after another. Only when Carmen raised her head and saw the group of uniform-clad EA personnel forming outside the white warship did she force herself to steel her resolve. Many of them were armed with sub-machine rifles, and she suddenly realized that she was all alone.

Kira offered her his hand, and she took it, clambering out of the cockpit. One glance at the distance to the ground made her dizzy again. "Hold on to me," Kira said. Carmen wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and he put his arm around her waist, careful to not touch her injury. She squeezed her eyes shut, and didn't open them again until she felt solid ground beneath her feet.

Almost immediately the guns were on them. Murrue Ramius was at the front. She was glaring daggers at Carmen. "Step away from the machine," she said.

Carmen obliged. This time, Murrue had one-upped her in firearm superiority. The gun barrels followed her movements. She raised her hands and put them on her head. As soon as she did that a soldier appeared behind her and cuffed her wrists. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed down, forcing her to her knees. Only then did the guns relax their aim.

"What are you doing?" Kira demanded. "If it weren't for her, you all would be dead! Besides, I was the one who was piloting the Gundam."

At those words the guns trained back on him. Carmen couldn't have that. "No, no, keep them pointed at me," she said. "He's just a civilian. I'm the insurgent here. Believe me, I am a much bigger threat than he is."

She could see that some of the soldiers were hesitating. Murrue Ramius stepped in. "Lower your weapons," she said. "Neither of them are a threat."

Carmen pulled a little at her restraints. They were on securely. Handcuffs these days were near impossible to escape from. Carmen always had the option of dislocating her thumb in order to slip one hand out, but that needed to be performed correctly in order to stave off possible permanent injury. Besides, it was only a theory for her - whether or not she could actually dislocate her own thumb on purpose was something else. For now, she had to concede that she was fairly incapacitated.

A blond man in a purple flight suit approached them. Carmen deduced that he must have been the one piloting the Mobius Zero. He looked at her, then at Kira. "Well," he said. "This is some mess we're in. I'm not sure which one of you I should compliment on the piloting."

Carmen lowered her head and closed her eyes. "Kira was at the controls the entire time."

"But you were telling me what to do," he protested.

"Kira, please," she said, her eyes still closed. "You knew what you were doing."

She imagined that the man was looking from one of them to the other. Then he said the words that she had been waiting for. "You're a coordinator, aren't you."

Only when Kira reluctantly said "Yes" did Carmen open her eyes. She kept her head bowed so no one could see the wry smile on her lips. _I knew it. _

There was general tumult. Soldiers raised their guns, pointing at Kira again. Almost immediately, Tolle and the others stepped in front of their friend. Each side stared the other down. Only when she was sure that the tension was about to break did Carmen speak up.

"You're a _coordinator_?" she said in mock surprise. "This entire time? Gosh Kira, I'm not sure if I can trust you anymore. I mean, what kind of person does that, not displaying his genetic material for the world to see?"

No one else, it appeared, found her as funny as she did.

"Kira may be a coordinator, but he's not one of them," Tolle said. The others - Miriallia, Sai, even Kuzzey - assented the virtuous reputation of their friend.

"Lower your weapons," Lieutenant Ramius repeated, and her order was followed.

"Sorry about that," the blond man said. "I didn't meant to stir up trouble. My name is Mu La Flaga, and I owe you my life."

Kira must not have been sure how to respond to that, so he simply said, "My name is Kira Yamato."

"Thank you, Kira Yamato."

Mu La Flaga then walked over to Carmen. "I assume I need to give you the same thanks as well. I wish they could have been under different circumstances."

Carmen shrugged. "You'll forgive me if I won't shake your hand."

"I would still like an introduction."

She gave the same wry smile. "Major Carmen Vagner of the 2nd Orbital Fleet of Apollo."

There. It was out. Carmen glanced over at Kira and saw the surprise registering on his face. Most of everyone else mirrored it.

Mu La Flaga looked like he was holding in a sigh. He turned to Murrue Ramius. "Doesn't quite make her our prisoner of war, now does it?"

Murrue Ramius said, "Doesn't make her much of anything."

At this Carmen spoke again. "On the contrary, Lieutenant Ramius. If you get in contact with the Apollo warship that is currently approaching the colony, you may find that I make the perfect hostage to stop them from putting a rather large crater where you now stand."


	3. Chapter 3: A Gundam Unchained

_Children of Gattaca_

Chapter 3: A Gundam Unchained

* * *

_Archangel_

* * *

For Murrue Ramius, the problems had just gone from bad to worse.

"What do you mean you can't pilot it?" she demanded.

Across from her sat her two fellow officers. Natarle Badgiruel was as professional and uptight as when they had first met. Mu La Flaga had changed into uniform, but he clearly preferred a more casual approach to military dress code. He was the one who raised his hands in a what-can-you-do? gesture.

"Have you seen the OS on that thing? It can't be piloted by any Natural. I don't know what the Major did to it, but no normal human can use that machine."

Natarle said, "Can we revert to the original operating system?"

"We can," Mu said. "But do we want to? You saw what that those two did. If we ever had a chance at making it out of this alive, it would be with that machine and that OS. Just get the appropriate pilot for it."

Murrue frowned. "Either a pirate or a civilian. Not much of a choice there, Lieutenant."

"The Major clearly has a military background. She would know what to do in combat."

"Carmen Vagner has no business in one of our machines," Natarle interjected. "She's admitted to being an insurgent. Even if the Atlantic Federation recognized Apollo as a nation, we would be breaking so many laws by putting one of our main weapons in the hands of someone from another military."

"As opposed to putting it in the hands of a civilian?" Mu said.

"What about the Mobius. When will that be ready for combat?"

"Not for a while," Mu said. "The damage that was done on it was extensive. We need the Strike to be ready to fight."

Murrue let out a breath. "If I could send those kids off to a shelter, I would," she said. "And then this decision would be simpler."

"Clearly we can't. They are now our responsibility."

Suddenly feeling weary of the world, Murrue closed her eyes. "Yes," she said. "I know. Something has to be done."

The next decision she made would impact the lives of everyone. She took a moment of silence to ponder it.

Mu said, "Might I consider the civilian? I think we've pissed off the pirate to the point that the second she's behind the controls, she'll disappear with everything but the clothes on our backs."

* * *

After a brief visit to the sickbay, where a soldier who was most qualified as a medic stitched her up again, Carmen was led down to the brig. The prisoner holding was a long hallway, with cells running up and down each side. It was, Carmen noted, fairly clean and humane-looking. At least, compared to some of the other ones she had seen.

She had been escorted down by two soldiers, each of whom carried a rifle. The first continued gripping her arm while the second opened a cell. Carmen didn't resist when instructed to walk in. She was the image of good prisoner cooperation.

"Handcuffs," the first said as the second locked the door.

Carmen backed up to the bars, and he un-cuffed her. "Nice tattoo," he remarked.

Carmen turned around to face him. She rubbed her wrists. "Thanks," she said. "Any chance I could get a clean shirt?"

She honestly expected him to say no, or even to say no with an added insult. It surprised her when he responded with, "I'll see what I can do."

He and his partner left without another word to her. Carmen watched his retreating back, suddenly regretting not having gotten his name. People who treated their prisoners with decency were few and far in between.

Carmen checked her wrist watch. It was 16,00 GMT. She estimated that in about an hour they would come down and get her. She settled down on the cot, careful to not disturb the stitching work again, and closed her eyes. Almost immediately, she was asleep.

It felt like only moments later when she heard someone knocking on the bars and telling her to wake up. Carmen groggily opened her eyes. Then she checked her watch. They were fifteen minutes late. "Well," she said. "Took you long enough."

A small entourage was waiting outside her cell. None looked particularly happy. The first two were from before, the third was a black-haired female officer, and the fourth was a dark-haired man in an orange jumpsuit. He spoke first.

"What the devil did you do to that machine, girl?" he demanded.

Carmen sat up and gave him a rather sweet smile. "Having trouble with the Gundam, are you?"

He was seething. She imagined steam coming out of his ears. "We can't do anything," he said. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It has shut down completely. Might as well be a piece of scrap metal, for all it's worth."

"Mr. Murdoch," the female officer said, her voice warning him. Carmen didn't see any reason to hide the information from her. She knew exactly what her code would do to the MS.

She tilted her head a little. "Did you honestly think that I wouldn't put some sort of protection on my operating system?

"It's not _your _machine -"

"Might as well be," she said. "The code Kira wrote was just okay. Good enough to move it. With the code I wrote, that Gundam can shoot down flies in the distance while doing somersaults and playing tasteful music. Well, almost." She cringed at the memory of the imperfect calibration. "Now imagine where your OS falls on this scale."

Murdoch continued to glare at her. Finally, he threw up his hands and walked away. "Screw it," he said. "Let her do maintenance on the machine. We're understaffed as it is."

The woman officer gaped after him, looking like she wanted to protest. Carmen understood how she felt. "Well, that was remarkably easy," she commented. "Just so you know, I only do work in clothing that is not bloodstained, and preferably after a good meal. Seriously, I was injured. I lost a lot of blood. Why haven't you people fed me yet?"

The woman turned back to scowl at her. "The captain wants to see you," she said.

"_Lieutenant_ Ramius wants to see me? Wonderful. Let her know that I'm ready and waiting." Carmen crossed her arms under her head and settled back down on the mattress.

But that, apparently, was not going to fly. A few minutes later she found herself being escorted to the bridge. At least this time they had forgone the handcuffs. Carmen supposed that one good punch in the general area of her injury would incapacitate her. No one had bothered giving her any pain medication, for what it was worth. High pain tolerance didn't mean that it didn't bother her - it did, very much - but rather that she knew how to hide or ignore it when necessary.

Upon entering the bridge, she couldn't help but immediately compare it to that of the _Völsung_. This bridge was new and modern, clean and spacious. They even had a separate section for the CIC. In contrast, _Völsung_'s bridge was so crowded that people were practically knocking elbows while they tried to work. What a difference a little bit of money made.

Carmen looked around and thought, _I could get used to this. _

Then she turned her attention to the newly anointed acting captain. She was in uniform now, and next to her stood Mu La Flaga, also in uniform. There were several other soldiers as well, all looking at her, save for one, who was monitoring the radio channels. Carmen noted each of their faces and ranks in turn; a CPO with short, dark hair; a brown-haired, sweet-faced Petty Officer; and another Petty Officer, shorter and squatter than the first two. None of them looked to be much older than she was.

Ramius opened her mouth to speak.

"What's that?" Carmen said. "You're going to feed me? Why that would be quite lovely, thank you."

Ramius closed her mouth, her lips pressing tightly together. "Go see if you can find something in the kitchens for the Major," she told one of the soldiers.

"Ma'am," he replied before leaving.

Carmen took note of that. _One hour on the job and they obey her like their true captain. _She looked around, picked an empty chair, and settled into it.

"So," she said, "Let us talk."

Captain Ramius didn't beat around the bush. "What will it take to get you to remove the block on the G-weapon's OS?"

Carmen leaned forward a little, suppressing a wince. "Are you negotiating with a terrorist?"

"Is that what you are? A terrorist?"

"I won't deny that is what some people have called me." She cocked her head to the side, questioning. "Why are you giving me this courtesy? Surely there are other methods by which you can get this information out of me."

The fact that Captain Ramius looked physically uncomfortable at this suggestion told Carmen a lot about the person she was dealing with. Before she gave a response, Natarle Badgiruel stepped in.

"When your commanders contact us," she said, "we hope to show them how well we take care of our hostages. Although," she added, "they don't appear to be too concerned about you. We have yet to spot your ship."

Carmen shrugged. "They're strategically biding their time."

"You're sure of that?"

"Don't try to unnerve me, Ensign Badgiruel," Carmen said. "They'll come for me. Don't you worry about that. And when they do, you don't need another enemy."

"Answer the question, and we won't have to come to that."

Carmen leaned back and considered this. "My safety," she said.

"You know we can't guarantee that."

"Fine. I'll be more specific. I don't want to die at your hands. If anyone on board this ship tries to shoot me, there will be hell to pay."

Badgiruel looked to her captain, who let out a breath and nodded. "Fine."

"And I don't want anyone shooting at my ship either."

"Not unless they shoot first," Lieutenant La Flaga said.

"And I want access to the Strike. That includes maintenance and piloting it during future inevitable melees."

To this Lieutenant Ramius said, "No."

"No?" Carmen echoed, calm as can be. "You do realize that I implemented a theoretical operating system to a machine with a design that doesn't match it. There are mistakes in that OS. They need to be fixed."

"There is no chance that I'm letting a member of a foreign military handle one of our weapons."

"So you acknowledge that my military does exist."

"I acknowledge a militant body that has enough intelligence to know how to act in combat. Whether they're from a nation or… a terrorist group, it doesn't matter. The answer is no."

"Then who, pray tell, will be the pilot?"

The hesitant silence was enough for Carmen to figure it out. "You didn't," she said.

More silence.

"Are you mad?" she said. "He's a civilian. A neutral civilian, at that. Who doesn't have any combat experience. Who has never even considered joining a military. Who has no clue how a ship works. Who has no idea how to act in battle."

"He'll learn," said Natarle Badgiruel in a cold voice.

Carmen turned. For the first time, she considered the woman before her. Natarle Badgiruel stood stock straight, without a hint of any emotion other than what appeared, at best, to be contempt. She clearly did not approve of Carmen.

"You don't learn how to be a soldier through a crash course," Carmen said just as coolly. "Do you have any idea what kind of psychological damage you are going to do if you force him to be one?"

Badgiruel waved her hand. "A coordinator has more than enough mental capacity to deal with it. Wouldn't you know, Major?"

"No, I wouldn't," Carmen said tersely. "I had years of training before I entered battle. And it was my choice." She narrowed her eyes. "No one coerced me to fight."

Now Murrue Ramius intervened. "We are not forcing him," she said. "Kira has agreed to pilot the Strike on his own volition."

Carmen looked to her. "And why would he do that?"

La Flaga answered. "Apparently he has people on this ship who he wants to protect."

This gave Carmen pause. She considered it. "Oh."

"We will uphold our end of the bargain as best we can," Murrue Ramius said. "But right now, in order to keep you safe - to keep everyone safe - we need to be able to fight back. What is the password to the lock?"

Carmen didn't answer immediately. She appeared to be pondering something quite deeply.

"Major Vagner," Badgiruel said sharply.

"Hmm?" Carmen looked up. "Oh. The password. Honestly, I have no idea."

* * *

_Völsung_

* * *

"What do you mean we hold our position?"

"This is a tricky political situation," Nathan said. He glanced towards David before continuing. "Honestly, at this point we don't know who to attack. And considering the state of this ship and her resources, we cannot afford to go barreling into combat without some idea of what we're doing."

"Some idea?" Meilin Zhang almost snapped at that. "Carmen is on that Earth Alliance ship! We need to get her out before they do who-knows-what to her."

"And that Earth Alliance ship is being attacked by ZAFT," Nathan said. "If we interfere, then ZAFT will attack us. If they do that, believe me, we will lose. If we attack the EA ship, Major Vagner will probably be killed."

"So you plan to do nothing?!"

"Sergeant Zhang," Nathan said sharply, his patience running thin. "Your previous relationship with Major Vagner is clearly clouding your judgement. Consider the rest of your crew. Are you willing to endanger them for the life of one person?"

When Meilin had no response, Nathan added, quietly, "Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are the only one who cares about her well-being, Sergeant. The situation is being handled. Now, please remain on standby. You are dismissed."

Meilen prepared to leave in a huff, caught herself, and saluted her captain. If the automatic door to the bridge could slam, Nathan was sure that she would have made it do so.

The rest of the crew stared at him. "Show's over, everyone," he said. "Back to work."

Nathan didn't allow himself to slouch or show signs of weariness, but mentally he was feeling it. _What a mess, _he thought. _What a bloody, awful mess. _

There was a tap on his shoulder. Nathan stood up and walked away from it. In such a small bridge he got maybe three steps before he had to stop. David quickly caught up with him. Neither man looked at the other. Nathan fixed his eyes on the front monitor; David regarded one of the side ones.

"I know what you're going to say," Nathan said in a low tone, so only the older man could hear him. "My crew is undisciplined. My ship isn't run efficiently. I'm clearly not fit for my role as a commanding officer."

David paused. "I wasn't going to say any of that," he said, even though Nathan had described David's thoughts almost verbatim.

Nathan let out a frustrated breath. "Good to know you have such high confidence in me," he said. The sarcasm was not lost on David.

"This is a tough situation," he admitted. "Our hands our tied."

There was a pause. Nathan folded his arms. "I don't like it," he said. "I don't like just leaving her out there."

"Major Vagner made a mistake. She had both the mobile suit and the pilot. She should have ran. We don't know why she got entangled with the Earth Alliance ship, but we don't have to pay for it."

"Circumstances were against her."

"This is war. Circumstances will never be in our favor."

Nathan turned to look at him. "Would you have me leave an injured man behind?" he asked softly.

David continued to watch the monitor. He met the question with another. "Would you be willing to make that sacrifice?"

Nathan thought about it. "Not if there was a chance," he finally said.

Now David did look at him. "Tell me, Colonel Romanov, how well do you know Major Vagner?"

Nathan shrugged. "Well enough, I suppose."

"And how much does she know about bomb disposal?"

"Not much," he admitted.

"Yet just this morning we watched her defuse five IEDs with only Sergeant Briggs to talk her through it," David said. "You and I have both known, ever since Carmen was a university student, the she had an exceptional mind. The girl has attitude problems, sure, and maybe not the best people skills… but she's smart. Do you think that she doesn't have a plan to ensure her own safety?"

Nathan stared at him. "What are you suggesting? That she's going to escape on her own?"

"That is exactly what I'm suggesting," General David Biskup said. "And when she does, we need to be ready to back her up."

He walked back to his seat. "A silent but deadly run is what we need, Colonel."

* * *

_Vesalius_

* * *

"Missing, you say?" Rau Le Creuset knitted his fingers together. His voice remained neutral and, considering his mask, it was difficult to tell what exactly the man was feeling. That made him appear all the more devious.

"It's of no consequence," Harper said. The way he spoke, it sounded like he was the leader in the room. In reality, he was anything but. "She must be in one of the shelters. There's no alternative explanation."

"No?" Creuset said. "How can you be sure that she isn't lying dead under the rubble?"

"Carmen Vagner would not have let that happen."

"Oh? You seem to have quite a lot of familiarity with your enemy."

Harper didn't so much as blink. He knew this tactic. Rau le Cresuset had been trying to get under his skin for weeks now. "Of course I would," he said, so diplomatically that it was hard to tell he was being condescending. "We served together. Carmen knows how to survive. If she's alive, then so is Cagalli Yula Athha."

"You are sure of this?"

"Beyond a doubt."

"Well then," Commander Creuset stood to address the rest of the room. "We must then be quite cautious in our attack on the Earth Forces ship."

Harper glanced at the reactions of the other crew members. He had learned long ago that to read a commander, you need only observe those who follow him.

"Please instruct Olor and Matthew to equip their GINNs with D-package weaponry," Creuset said.

Captain Fredrik Ades protested. "But sir, with that kind of equipment, the damage done to Heliopolis - "

"Have you so little faith in our pilots?" Creuset asked.

Ades hesitated for a moment, then carried out the orders.

Creuset continued. "Our primary objective is to sink the Earth Forces ship. We cannot allow such technology to be used against the PLANTS."

"So you're willing to attack a neutral nation," Harper said softly, more to himself than to the commander. Nevertheless, Creuset heard him.

"Please, Lieutenant," he said. "We all know just exactly how neutral you people are."

Another blow. Another attempt to get under his skin. Harper refused to give him the time of day. "I hope you don't expect me to sit back and watch Orb burn," he said quite calmly, almost friendly-like.

Creuset regarded him for a moment. Measuring him up. "May I remind you that you are a guest aboard this vessel, Lieutenant Voigt," he said, also just as calm. "And that when your team joins you, they will also be guests. Tread carefully, Lieutenant. If I begin to feel that you are a danger to this ship, I will remove you from it."

_No doubt you would, _Harper thought. _With force. Into space. Probably without a suit. And no one would stop you. _He glanced briefly at Captain Ades, then back to the masked man. "My apologies, Commander," he said. "It wasn't my place to question your authority. It won't happen again."

"Thank you for that, Lieutenant."

Rau le Creuset turned away from him. Harper wondered whether the deal with the devil was truly worth it. The _Völsung _had been Her Majesties flagship back during her service days. That was over thirty years ago, and the ship was now one of the most outdated vessels to fly under Scandinavian colors. At least, until it defected. Queen Margret had seen that as a personal insult, and demanded it's immediate return. At this point, with the Oslo spaceport destroyed, such a feat required some unsavory dealings. And Harper was the perfect man to deal with them. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

_It's not the ship, _Harper reminded himself. _It's the people on it. They are far more dangerous, and far more important than an aging queen's wounded pride. _

He looked to the monitor to see three GINNs launch. He wondered for a moment if Cagalli Yula Athha would have been safe with him, aboard a ZAFT vessel. He had assumed his power would make it so, but now he wasn't so sure it would have played out like that.

"Captain!" one of the green-clad soldiers called. "The Aegis just launched!"

"What?" Ades said. "Call him back."

"No, let him go," Creuset said. "We've extracted the data we need. Besides, it will be interesting to see two G-weapons fight each other in battle." He glanced towards Harper. "Don't you agree, Lieutenant?"

It was a dangerous game he was playing. "Completely, Commander."

* * *

_Archangel_

* * *

"No idea? What do you mean you have no idea?"

Carmen smiled. Partly because she loved explaining her own ingenuity, and partly because she had finally gotten the clean shirt she wanted. It had come, almost begrudgingly, with a nutrient bar and a bottle of water.

"The lock on the system is an algorithm," she explained. "Every thirty seconds it gives you a new equation. Solve it, and the machine is yours. Make a mistake, and part of the OS shuts down. Make three mistakes, and you are locked out. Only for a few hours, of course, but if you continue trying to crack it, you may end up with a completely corrupted operating system."

"How in the bloody hell are you supposed to solve that equation in thirty seconds?"

"Mr. Murdoch, I can solve it in five."

The man looked at her in disbelief. "This I got to see."

Murdoch led her to one of the computers that was hooked up to the Strike Gundam. The screen was currently blank, save for a blinking cursor.

"How many times have you tried to get in?" Carmen asked.

"Twice."

"Oh. Lovely."

Carmen took her place in front of the computer as she put on her glasses. She hesitated for a moment, her finger hovering over the Enter button. "They get progressively more difficult the more you try to hack in," she said.

"Have you ever solved a third attempt problem?" Murdoch asked.

"I never had to."

Whatever tension there had been in the room to begin with just increased significantly. Aside from Murdoch, there were also several mechanics clustered around her, as well as Mu La Flaga. Carmen glanced up at the machine and, without much further ado, pressed the button.

An equation appeared. It resembled differential calculus, the kind that involved a graphing calculator and several sheets of scrap paper. Carmen considered it for a good fifteen seconds before typing out the answer.

"Not my best," she conceded as she sent it in. Almost instantaneously, the Strike came to life. It's eyes flashed and a screen appeared that showed all systems were online.

"Now then," Carmen said. "Let's fix you up."

And she began typing. After a good two minutes, Murdoch sent the rest of the mechanics back to work. Watching Carmen write code wasn't exactly entertaining. Eventually, it was only Mu La Flaga who stayed behind. When it was just the two of them, he spoke.

"Seems a bit overkill," he observed. "To put a lock on that only you can solve. If you die, the system dies with you."

"Not at all, Lieutenant," Carmen replied without breaking away from her work. "There are many who have the same math skills that I do."

"I find it hard to believe."

"You shouldn't," Carmen said. "Anyone can do what I just did. Yes, it requires quite a bit of mental training, but it's not impossible."

"Not impossible for a coordinator?"

"Not impossible for anyone."

He had to commend her for how smoothly she dodged his question. One thing that Mu admired about the Kingdom of Scandinavia was that they did not keep track of genetic records. The only time the words 'coordinator' and 'natural' were used in official documents were for hospital records, and those were sealed due to doctor-patient confidentiality.

"Besides," Carmen continued, "with this kind of system, I can't give anything away if my enemy decided to torture me."

"That is quite cautionary of you."

Carmen only paused for the briefest of seconds before continuing her work. "Everyone has a breaking point," she said simply.

Their conversation was cut short when Kira entered the hangar. Carmen immediately dropped what she was doing and went to him.

"Kira," she said. "Are you alright?"

The boy had put on a flight suit, and clearly looked uncomfortable wearing it. "I'm fine," he replied. "What's going on? I thought you were under arrest, or something."

Carmen shook her head. "No, nothing like that. They told me that you volunteered to pilot the Strike."

"Yes."

"Are you sure you want to do this, Kira? You can still walk away from it."

Kira regarded her. On the surface, Carmen looked concerned. But the seed of distrust had already started to take root, and now Kira was beginning to debate just how trustworthy she was. How much of it was an act that she was putting on.

"I'm the only one who can do this, Carmen," he said. "You're injured. You said it yourself - you shouldn't be going into battle."

It was hard to read what Carmen was thinking. It looked like she was trying to read him as well, to see if there were any cracks in his resolve. If she did find them, she chose not to exploit them. "Okay," she said. "I've fixed the bigger issues with the OS. There's a lot of smaller stuff that still needs attention, so watch out for those. I'll be with you the whole way while you're out there. If there's a problem, tell me."

Behind her, Mu tried to figure out when exactly she decided that she was going to be allowed on the bridge during combat, let alone be allowed to participate in it.

Kira nodded. "Okay."

"Oy, you lot!" Murdoch yelled to them from the lower level. "We'll be opening the hangar soon! Best you get out of the way."

"Right you are, Mr. Murdoch!" Mu called back down to him. "Let's go, you," he said to Carmen.

Carmen complied, but as she passed Kira she paused and touched his arm. "You stay safe out there, you hear?"

"…Yeah."

Mu and Carmen walked away while Kira hesitantly climbed into the cockpit of the Strike.

As soon as the doors to the hangar closed, a voice came on over the loudspeakers.

"_Lieutenant La Flaga, please report to the bridge._"

Noting the urgency in the man's voice, Mu glanced over at Carmen. She looked back.

"It's best we hurry, then," she said.

Her tone was completely serious, but Mu didn't miss the the hint of a mischievous smile on her lips. It was a challenge. _Just try and keep me out of this, _it said. Mu was certain, now more than ever, that Carmen was not above refusing to unlock the Strike for them again.

_We need to write a new operating system, _he thought. _And fast. Either that, or learn another way to break through that lock. _

Aloud, he said, "Indeed. Any particular requests you have regarding your role on the bridge?"

Carmen thought for the briefest of seconds before saying, "Please keep Ensign Badgiruel off my back."

It was not an unreasonable request, Mu found, for upon seeing Carmen enter the bridge again, Natarle Badgiruel looked to be the first to protest. He quickly silenced her by saying, "Major Vagner will be filling in as our mobile suit communications liaison for this battle."

By the time he had said that, Carmen had already jumped down to the CIC and grabbed one of the empty chairs. She put on a headset, fiddled a little with the controls of the computer, and said, "All right Kira, can you hear me?"

"_Yeah. Loud and clear,_" he responded.

"Have you had a chance to look over the code changes?"

"_Yes._"

"Do they make sense to you?"

_"Yes._"

"Then make your way to the catapult. You'll be receiving the…" she paused and waited for Murdoch's people to send her the information, "… Sword Striker pack."

" _Okay. That should prevent a repeat of last time._"

"Strike is ready to launch," she called up. Then, without even a moment of hesitation, she took off her flash drive necklace, plugged it into the computer, and began typing. She had, maybe at most, a minute to sync the computer with the Strike operating system. It was a risky move, considering the company that surrounded her, but well worth it. Carmen had data she needed to collect. And, while she was at it, data on the _Archangel _wouldn't hurt.

Said _Archangel _took off the ground. "Our main goal is to escape Heliopolis," Murrue Ramius announced. "We are not to damage the colony in our attack."

"I don't think that's possible," someone muttered.

Carmen felt eyes on her. She glanced to her neighbor and saw the brown-haired Petty Officer watching her. He didn't raise the alarm, but just continued to look at her quizzically. Carmen paused her typing to stare him down.

"Something the matter?" she asked softly.

Now that she was seeing him up close, Carmen thought she recognized his face. He gave a half shrug and returned to his own screen.

"Enemy mobile suits detected," he said. "Heat source patterns… it's a GINN!"

"What are they thinking?" Mu La Flaga demanded. "It's equipped with heavy artillery meant for taking out bases."

"Send out the Strike," Natarle Badgiruel ordered.

"Kira, go ahead," Carmen said. A pause. Nothing happened. "Oh, for the love of — floor it, Kira! You can decelerate once you're out of the ship."

"_Uh… right. Sorry._"

This time he did the launch properly. With her computer now properly synced to the Strike, Carmen had an almost first person point-of-view of what Kira was seeing. With the cancelers in effect, the signal from the mobile suit was strong. She could track how well it responded to her OS with maybe a couple milliseconds of delay in transmitting the signal. What's more, now that Kira was wearing a flight suit, she could monitor the pilot as well as the machine.

_Technology… I love you, _Carmen thought.

On the screen, she saw a sudden blast on one of the walls of the colony, and then more mobile suits come in out of the smoke.

"Incoming from the Tanebaum district," someone called out.

Then, a second later, another figure flew in.

"One unit is X-303. The Aegis!"

Lieutenant Ramius sounded shocked. "They're sending it out against us? Already?"

"It's theirs now!" Mu said. "Are you prepared to let it sink us?"

"Prepare to fire Corintoss," Badgiruel instructed.

Carmen glanced over to another screen she had open. It showed the specs of the _Archangel. _The currently active weapons were highlighted and, Carmen noted, were a real danger of hitting the Strike if they were set on automatic aiming. "Kira, watch out for friendly fire," she said.

"_How do I -_"

"If I tell you to get out of the way, you move. And fast."

She didn't have time to give him any more advice. One of the GINNs engaged him. It fired at the Strike, and Kira, his reflexes lightning-fast, flew up and dodged it. The laser hit a support shaft and virtually disintegrated it. Thousands of tons of coil and steel fell and hit the colony ground.

Carmen heard Kira inhale sharply.

The GINN pilot gave him no time to recover. It fired again. Kira dodged it just as easily, and this time the blast destroyed a high-rise building.

"_There's no way I can avoid it from hitting the colony,_" she heard him mutter. "_What am I going to do?_"

Carmen could have told him what he had to do. But she didn't. She wanted to see if he could come to the same conclusion. Make the same decision.

The next time the GINN fired, Kira caught the blast on his shield. He used the smoke as a cover, then jumped the machine, engaging it with his sword.

Carmen felt a shudder. "Number four weapons bank has been hit!" she heard someone say. "Seal off the bulkhead."

An alarm went off. "Alright, give me manual targeting control," Mu ordered.

The red mobile suit - the Aegis - was coming up behind the Strike. Carmen opened her mouth, prepared to warn him, when it happened. Everything around her drowned out, as if the volume had suddenly been turned on low, and she saw what Kira was surely about to do.

He had made his decision.

It was amazing to see what people could be pushed to do in times of violence.

The Strike drew the Midas Messer from the shoulder mount and threw it at the GINN. The other pilot dodged it, but did not account for the fact that the weapon was a boomerang. It came back around and sliced off the legs of the GINN. _That_ caught the pilot by surprise, and the Strike seized the moment to slice through the chest of the GINN. It took another moment — did the pilot realize he was going to die? Did his life flash before his eyes? — and then the GINN exploded.

Kira Yamato had crossed a line from which he could never return.

Carmen let out a small sigh and noted the time of death.

There was no time allowed to think about the kill. Not for Kira. If he even took a second to acknowledge what he had just done, in the middle of battle, it would cost him his life. And now he had the Aegis to deal with. But for the second time, something about the Strike pilot surprised Carmen to the point that she didn't say anything.

It was his heartbeat. Adrenaline was coursing through his system, flight versus fight instincts were flaring, yet Kira's heart rate had barely increased. He was… calm? Contemplative? The Strike and the Aegis were staring each other down, not engaging.

_What is going on with you? _Carmen thought.

Then the Aegis hailed the Strike and she got her answer.

"_Kira. Kira Yamato. So it is you… isn't Kira?!_"

And, to Carmen's horror, Kira responded.

"_Athrun…. Athrun Zala?!_"

One of the _Archangel'_s laser cannons caught the last surviving GINN, but not before the missiles it was carrying were launched. They flew into one of the major support beams, hitting it one right after the other. There was a collective gasp on the bridge. Heliopolis was beginning to disintegrate around them.

"_What is this? Why are you here?"_

_"I could ask you the same think. What are you _doing_ inside that machine?"_

Almost as if it had been held together only by thread…so fragile did it now, at the moment of its death, suddenly appear…Heliopolis unravelled. The vacuum of space took hold and everything flew everywhere, and the best they could do was hold on to something.

Carmen wasn't even aware she was doing it, but her hand reached out, towards the image of the Strike… and then it slipped through her fingers, and was gone.


	4. Chapter 4: It's Very Complicated

_Children of Gattaca_

Chapter 4: It's Very Complicated

* * *

_Archangel, _Bridge

* * *

There was a tiny island floating through space. On it were two trees, some shrubs and grass, and a swing set, right in the middle. It wasn't hard to imagine a child there to complete the picture. She would be playing, swinging back and forth. Then, once she was as high as she could get, she would let go and fly off into the vastness of space. Everything was hazy and shimmering. It all looked like a surrealist painting.

Then, in one great rush, reality came back. The island broke apart and became even more debris.

"Status report," Ramius ordered.

While one officer rattled off all the damages the ship had taken, Carmen fiddled with her console. She had lost the signal to the Strike. Normally, she would have assumed that meant the machine had been destroyed, but with this much debris around them, few wavelengths were getting through without interference.

"What's the status of the Strike?" Badgiruel said.

"Who knows," Carmen replied. "Wait, hold on…. I'm getting some audio."

She played with a dial until she found a setting with the least amount of static.

"Kira?" she said. "Kira, can you read me?"

Silence.

"Kira. If you're alright, please respond."

More silence.

"Kira Yamato! Oh, for crying out loud, I can hear you breathing!"

That appeared to spark some life back into him. "_Kira here,_" he responded. "_I'm okay._"

Carmen felt her shoulders sag a little with relief. She hadn't even been aware the she was tensing them. "How's the machine?" she asked.

_"It's okay._"

"The Strike is synced to the main operating system of the _Archangel_. That means you should be getting our coordinates."

"_Yeah. Yeah, they're here._"

"Good. Make your way back to us."

"_Okay._"

"And Kira?"

There was a pause. "_Yeah?_"

"Don't think about it," Carmen said. "Not yet. Just… just focus on coming back. Okay?"

"_… Yeah._"

Kira's voice sounded defeated. But he was alive, and that was what mattered. Carmen let him disconnect. The next step was to transfer the data of the battle back to her flash drive. She did as such and a status bar appeared. Carmen leaned back in her seat and watched it crawl forward. Only then did she let herself think about what had just happened.

Above her, Mu La Flaga stared at the destruction. He was in awe. "I can't believe it," he said. "It was so… fragile."

The status bar completed. Carmen grabbed the tiny Buddha - perhaps a little too aggressively - and left her seat. She found herself in nil gravity. Getting back her space legs was a lot like remembering how to ride a bicycle. Carmen pushed off and propelled herself out of the CIC and onto the main bridge.

"Well?" she said. "What are you planning to do now?"

Surprise registered on Lieutenant Ramius' face at what was undeniably anger in Carmen's voice. But she recovered.

"The ship is still in a combat situation," she said quite professionally. She turned to one of her Petty Officers. "Have you detected the ZAFT vessels?"

"It's impossible," he replied. "There's too much debris. Our laser and thermal detectors are of little use."

"Which means they'll have the same problem," Mu observed. "Think they'll come after us?"

"We should move based on that assumption."

"And if they attack? All we have is the Strike and my damaged Zero. And this ship is badly understaffed. I suppose we could run full speed. Shake them off."

"The enemy's _Nazca_-class is a high-speed vessel as well."

"Well, we could always surrender. That _is _an option, captain."

Murrue looked startled at this suggestion. The thought hadn't crossed Carmen's mind either. Now that it had, she began to wonder what would happen to her if this ship was seized by ZAFT. PLANTs was sympathetic to the Republic of Apollo, but even they had yet to acknowledge the colonies as an autonomous nation.

Her mulling was interrupted by Natarle Badgiruel's shrill voice.

"Hold on a second," she was saying. "We cannot permit that."

"What's the situation, Ensign Badgiruel?" Murrue said.

"The Strike has returned. However, it appears to be accompanied by one of the life boats."

"What? Put him on speaker."

Natarle pressed some controls and Kira's voice was heard by everyone on the bridge. "_Can't permit it?_" he said. "_What do you mean you can't permit it? The propulsion was broken; it was drifting through space._"

"The _Archangel _is still in combat," Natarle said as she came out of the CIC. "Besides, relief forces will be here soon."

"_So you're just telling me to toss it back out there? There are refugees on board._"

During this exchange, Murrue caught Carmen's gaze. The young captain wondered if it was possible for a person to look any more judgmental than how Carmen did in that instant. "Very well," she said, looking away, "I'll allow it."

Badgiruel looked startled. "Captain -"

"I don't want to waste time quibbling over petty things like this," she said. Then, quietly, she added, "We're responsible for destroying their home. The least we can do is make sure that they are taken care of."

Badgiruel hesitated, then complied. "Very well, Captain."

While Kira brought in the refugees, she continued. "Captain, may I suggest Artemis as our destination?"

"Artemis?" Ramius repeated.

"That's a Eurasian military base," La Flaga said. "The one with the umbrella."

"Given our present location, it is the nearest allied outpost," Badgiruel explained. "Consider also that our enemy doesn't know about our insufficient supplies. They would assume that we would head to the Atlantic Federation base on the moon."

"We fire a decoy," La Flaga said, catching onto Badgiruel's line of thinking, "Run our engines on maximum, then fly to Artemis solely on inertia."

"A silent run."

Carmen, tired of listening to all this, began to make her way to the exit.

"Hold on," Badgiruel said to her. "Where are you going?"

"To service the Strike," Carmen said. She stopped and looked back at them. "I have all the data I need."

"You've been rather quiet about all this," Mu said.

"Have I now?" she said.

"Care to express any views on this matter?"

Carmen looked down at the flash drive in her hand. The Buddha serenely smiled back up at her. She recalled how, countless times, she had reviewed footage of herself in a mobile suit. She must have watched hundreds of recordings of her own simulations. Even then, when she reviewed her first actual fight…the experience had been harrowing. She couldn't sleep properly for weeks after that.

And she had been mentally prepared. Kira was anything but.

"You people do realize," she said softly, "that boy just killed someone today."

In their favor, both Mu and Murrue looked rightfully ashamed at acknowledging this fact.

Natarle Badgiruel, though, did not. "He shot down a ZAFT soldier," she said. "One who was trying to kill _him, _I might add."

Carmen met Badgiruel's glare with her own. "Soldiers are still humans. Or are you suggesting that coordinators are less so?"

_That _shut her up. But she looked peeved. Carmen was winning no points with this woman. Well, to hell with it. She was pissed too. Carmen got to the door and, with a _whoosh_, it opened.

"Do whatever you want," she said. "I have nothing to contribute. I'm no strategist."

"I recall you saying you were," Murrue Ramius said.

"Did I?" Carmen thought about it. "Must have been lying."

And, on that note, the door closed.

* * *

_Archangel, _Hanger

* * *

The hanger was crowded with people. They were milling around the shuttle pod they had just escaped from, not entirely sure what to do or where to go. Several gaped at the giant mobile suit towering over them, while many others were trying to figure out how to move about in zero gravity. No one gave Carmen a second glance when she entered and made a beeline to the Strike. The mechanics had plugged it up to several computers, but there was currently no one manning them. The priority for them appeared to be fixing the Mobius Zero. Murdoch was horribly understaffed.

Carmen took one of the consoles and plugged in the flash drive. She got in a good hour of work before she was interrupted again.

This time it was by the chief mechanic himself. "How's it going?" Murdoch said.

Carmen didn't even glance up. "Fine. Have you seen Kira?"

"The kid?He went off with some girl from the life boat. Looked like they knew each other." A pause, and then he said, "Mind telling me what you're doing?"

His tone was inquisitive, not accusatory. Carmen took that as a good sign. Perhaps this man was willing to work with her, to consider her the rough equal of a colleague.

"I'm fine-tuning the operating system to the weapon packages of the Strike," she said. Then she sighed. "Though, to be completely honest with you, the whole program may need to be rewritten."

Murdoch sounded panicked. "Why's that?"

"Because Kira's reflexes are much faster than the ones of this machine," Carmen said. She finished typing and a progress bar appeared to show that the system was rendering. She took a step back and rested against the railing. "You don't buy a designer suit without going to a tailor," she said. "The same with this mobile suit. It needs to be adjusted to fit Kira's needs."

"If the kid is even going to pilot it."

Carmen looked at Murdoch, her eyebrows raised. "I think he has to now."

Another pause, and then: "Mr. Murdoch, does the Strike have verification codes to show that it is an allied weapon to Eurasia?"

He scratched his head. "Don't think so. Neither does this ship, I believe. They put it off to keep the project a secret for as long as possible."

"Huh," Carmen said. She glanced at the machine, then returned her gaze to the mechanic. "Mind doing me a favor?"

"Depends on what it is," he said.

"When we arrive at Artemis," she said, "we may run into some issues in regards to the lock on the OS. They'll probably ask for the pilot. If that happens, please make sure that Kira doesn't say anything. Let me be the one to volunteer."

Murdoch guardedly regarded her. "Why?"

"Because I'm much better at withstanding interrogation."

It took a moment, and then he nodded gravely. "If it comes to that."

"Let us hope it won't." Carmen rubbed her eyes. Exhaustion was settling down on her, making her head feel heavy. The bullet wound in her side ached and Carmen placed a hand on the area. Murdoch took notice of that.

"Hey," he said, "we probably have a few hours before anything happens. You should get some sleep."

Carmen waved a hand towards the console. "I'm not done. I need those hours to work."

"You'll have plenty of time to play with the OS later," he said. "No one on my crew is allowed to operate heavy machinery while they're inhibited."

At that, Carmen wryly smiled.

"Go sleep," Murdoch ordered. "Then get some food in you, and a strong cup of coffee. Come back when you're feeling better."

Carmen complied with his demands, but not before saying, "Don't you know, Mr. Murdoch? There's no rest for the wicked."

* * *

_Archangel, _Barracks

* * *

The refugees had migrated from the hanger into the barracks portion of the ship. Several were standing in line, waiting to be scanned in by the same Petty Officer from the CIC. _Learn their names, Carmen, _she reminded herself as she passed by him. The other refugees had divvied up between the cafeteria and the sleeping quarters. As Carmen walked through the latter crowd, she surreptitiously grabbed an unattended sweater lying on a bed. She kept walking, and no one noticed.

She found an empty quartet of beds, hoisted herself up to a top bunk, and closed the curtain. The sudden privacy was a relief. Carmen pulled on the sweater, which was a little big on her, but was also soft and warm. It vaguely smelled of perfume. She set an alarm on her phone for three hours and lay down.

_Don't think_, she told herself. _Don't think about anything. Just… sleep._

Her dreams were empty.

When the alarm went off, it was hard waking up. Carmen struggled to consciousness; her body protested the entire way. Everything hurt. Carmen was sure that there were some fine bruises forming from when she had slammed into the wall from the explosion. The bullet wound throbbed. Ripping her stitches probably hadn't helped the healing process.

_Come on, soldier, _she thought. _You've parried through worse. You can get through this as well._

Very, very slowly, she sat up. Only once she was upright, did she register the voices on the other side of the curtain.

It was an argument.

"_My_ machine?" a voice that no doubt belonged to Kira was saying, "What do you mean _my _machine?"

"Let's just say that's what's been decided," Mu La Flaga's voice responded. "Fact is, you're the only one capable of piloting it. Can't be helped."

Carmen froze. _Oh no, _she thought. _Please tell me this isn't happening._

"Hold on," Kira said. "I may have piloted it twice, but I didn't have any choice at the time. You have Carmen now. Ask her to do it."

Carmen could easily imagine the frustration on La Flaga's face. It was clear enough when he spoke. "There are laws we still have to abide by, kid," he said. "Common sense being the first of them. We're desperate enough to let her service the Strike. But we don't know how she would act in battle. She's an insurgent, and her initial goal had been to steal this G-weapon. While you would fight to protect this ship, she could just as easily turn around and shoot at us."

She had been just about to jump out and put in her two cents, but at that remark, she stopped. Her hand hovered just above the handle of the curtain. _You can't be serious, _she thought, _Did I not just fight _with _you a few hours ago? _Just like that, Carmen decided that she would much rather hear this conversation out. To see where exactly she stood with these people. At this point it didn't matter so much that she couldn't pilot the Strike - politics aside, she admitted now that she was too injured to be of any good in combat - but it did matter what everyone thought of her.

"I don't want people thinking that I'm a soldier," Kira said.

"So when the fighting starts again, and you refuse to use it, are those going to be your last words?" La Flaga responded. "Kira, you have the power to make a difference. Why not put it to good use?"

Carmen almost scoffed at that line. We're they really about to put all their eggs into the basket of a civilian child? Kira was special - Carmen was ready to admit that without a doubt - but he was no warrior. _And yet, _she thought, _is there anyone else? _Besides herself, who else was there?

"Right now, you and I are the only ones who can protect this ship," La Flaga continued. "We have precious little time - including time to think it over."

On that note, it seemed like he was about to walk away. Then, another voice stopped him. "Excuse me, but where is this ship heading now?"

Carmen frowned for a moment, then placed it. Sai Argyle. Another student she had noticed to be rather brilliant. Not as good a Kira, of course, but he had potential to become a successful engineer.

"Artemis," La Flaga responded, confirming the decision that had been made on the bridge. "Let's just hope they let us in without a fuss."

Now he really did walk away. A small silence descended. Then, suddenly, Kira said, "This isn't - " and broke off. Carmen heard footsteps running away. "Kira!" someone called after him.

"Hold on," said a new voice. This one was female, and Carmen didn't have any inkling who it could have belonged to. "What was that? So that Kira guy, he was in…"

"You heard about how the lifeboat was carried in by a mobile suit," Sai explained. "My friend Kira was the one who was piloting it."

"He was?" said the girl. "But why would someone like him be in a mobile suit?"

Another silence. Then: "Because Kira is a coordinator."

"Kuzzey!"

"What? He is. There's no point in hiding it, Tolle."

"A coordinator?" the girl said, her voice now holding a twinge of fear. "But doesn't that mean -"

"No," said Miriallia. "Kira is a cherished friend. He is still one of us."

They seemed to consider that. Carmen did too. It was good that Kira had these people, this support the girl said, "But doesn't that still mean there a chance… What about the other person they were talking about?"

"Carmen?"

"Yeah, that one."

Carmen sat up a little straighter.

At first, no one spoke. Eventually, Miriallia said, "I can't say I really know her. We had her as a TA for a class last semester. Kira would know her better - he was her research assistant."

"She seemed cool," Tolle added. "I mean, she was smart and stuff, but not conventionally. If you know what I mean. She bought us beer that one time."

The girl said, "Is she… also…?"

"Probably."

"Kuzzey, we don't know that!"

"Oh, come on," he boy retorted. "It seems pretty obvious from my perspective. And even if she's not, that Lieutenant guy was right. The Republic of Apollo? They're practically a terrorist group."

"They're colonies, Kuzzey," Miriallia said. Carmen appreciated the defensive stance in her voice.

"Have you watched the news? All those people do is raid and pillage. They don't have enough of their own resources, so they take them anywhere they can find them. That's probably what she was doing in Heliopolis. She was going to steal those mobile suits. ZAFT just got to them first."

"We don't know that."

"Well, what else could it be?"

Yet another silence, as they contemplated this. It was Sai who had the last say. "Kuzzey's right," he said. "We don't know who Carmen is. The Earth Alliance is right in not trusting her."

The conversation petered off, and Carmen sat back and mulled over her options. She ran her hand through her hair, noticed that it was tangled, and realized that she didn't have a brush with her. She combed it with her fingers, then pooled it over one shoulder and began to braid it. Once she was done with the plait, she knew what she had to do.

In one fluid motion, she opened the curtain and jumped out of bed. Several heads turned in her direction. She placed Sai and Miriallia first, then two more students who must have been Kuzzey and Tolle, and, lastly, a new member - a red-haired, rather beautiful girl in a pink dress.

The awkwardness was palpable as they all waited for her reaction. Carmen didn't give it to them. She stretched, carefully, minding the stitches. Her spine gave a small _crack_. She let out a sigh at that, then finally regarded their guilty faces.

"Sup?" she said, nodding at them.

And that was that. She walked past without a word. Carmen could guess how much they thought she had overheard. It gave her pleasure to be able to play with them like this. When you can't get respect, it's best to settle for fear.

As she made her way down the hallway, Carmen passed Mu La Flaga. When he saw her, he opened his mouth to say something. Carmen was already ahead of him.

"Don't you worry, Lieutenant," she said as she walked past him. "Kira will pilot it. He just needs a talking to."

* * *

_Archangel, _Hanger

* * *

She found Kira in the hanger, staring sullenly at the Strike Gundam. He hadn't heard her approach, and so Carmen was able to take a pause just to observe him. _God_, she thought when she saw his tormented expression, _he is just a kid. _She steeled herself for what she was about to do. "Hey," she said when she was close enough.

He looked at her. "Hey," he responded.

The distance between them was several feet more than it should have been. It felt overly polite, and just a tad awkward. They were strangers now.

Carmen put her hands in her pockets. "Whatcha thinking about, kiddo?"

Kira shook his head. "Nothing…. I can't do this."

"Do what?"

"This!" He gestured towards the mobile suit. "They expect me to fly it again."

"Is that so unreasonable?"

He looked at her with pained eyes. The determination she had seen before the previous battle - a determination that she was now sure had been entirely drawn out of a rush of adrenaline - was now gone. Kira had played soldier and had found that it wasn't to his liking.

"I'm not a soldier, Carmen," he said, further confirming the thought. "I don't want anything to do with this war."

"Yet here we are," she patiently said.

He looked so lost. "I don't know what to do."

There was a pause. Carmen scuffed her foot along the grating. "Yes you do," she said.

When he looked at her questioningly, she took a breath and said, "At this point, Kira, it isn't just about you. There are close to a hundred Orb civilians on this ship. People who cannot protect themselves, who will undoubtedly die if this ship is sunk." She looked at him levelly. "People that you are now responsible for."

He looked taken aback. "I am?"

"You're the one who brought them here, Kira," she said. "Will you make this ship even less safe for them than it was to begin with?"

He didn't say anything to that.

"You flew once in battle. You had to kill someone. Yes, that is horrifying, and yes, it is going to stay with you for the rest of your life," Carmen said. "But there are still people here who need your protection. You can't just quit on them."

This time he looked away. There was another silence. Again, Carmen was the one to break it.

"Kira… who is Athrun Zala?"

His eyes widened and his head snapped back to look at her. "How did you - ?"

"The Strike system is synced with the _Archangel,_" Carmen said. "That includes audio and visual."

"So you know…?"

"That this Athrun appears to be quite concerned about you," she finished for him.

Kira's lips tightened. Now he had to take a breath before he spoke. "We went to Lunar Prep School together," he said. "We were… good friends. He's the one who made Tori," he added, nodding to the robotic bird that was flying circles around their heads.

Carmen's gaze followed the flight of Tori. "I see," she softly said. She was familiar with having to look at the face of a comrade - a friend - on the other side of the battlefield line.

"I don't want to fight him," Kira said.

"No, of course you don't."

"Do you think… that you could…"

Carmen looked down to meet his eyes again. "Fill in for you?"

He appeared to be embarrassed at the suggestion. "Yeah."

But Carmen shook her head. "Lieutenant Ramius was very firm. Given the chance, I would grab it and run."

"No you wouldn't," Kira said.

"And how would you know?"

He thought about it, then shrugged. "You don't seem like the type."

To this she laughed harshly. "Kira, do you have any idea who I am?"

This was the wrong question to ask. "I thought I did," Kira said. "It seems that I was wrong. You never did answer my question."

She looked weary. "Do you really want to know?"

Kira nodded. "No more lies," he said.

_What are you? _It was a simple enough question. Answering it, though… Carmen had to think of the best way to abridge her life story, to censor everything that needed censoring.

She began. "I was born as a Scandinavian citizen in the Apollo colonies. When I was fifteen, I was recruited by University of Stockholm. So I moved to Earth. While I was at uni, I joined the reserve corps." She shrugged. "At the time, it seemed like the best plan. You can imagine what kind of prospects they offered me, the kind of people I would get to work with. And the funding was through the roof. You understand why that appealed to someone with my skills set."

Kira solemnly nodded in agreement. Working at Morgenroete as a college student gave him a taste of what could be done on the budget of the government.

"I was nineteen when I graduated," she went on. "I began to serve in active duty. Mostly that meant research, but once mobile suits started coming out, I began to see more and more combat. And, during that time, there began to be a lot of unrest in the colonies. You see, Apollo had grown quite a bit. Close to five million people. And it was becoming difficult for them to be governed by Queen Margret."

At this she paused, and carefully chose what she was going to say next. "Now, Scandinavia has always had enemies, particularly due to their policy on genetic documentation."

Again, Kira nodded. His own parents had considered moving to neutral Scandinavia for that very reason, but the immigration policies were strict beyond belief. They had been unable to attain asylum, and chose to live in Orb instead.

"One of those enemies is Blue Cosmos. And it is very hard to fight a powerful terrorist group that spans several countries. We don't know who they are. We can barely track their movements. So when they attacked us, we were not prepared."

Kira's brow furrowed. "Attacked us?"

Carmen turned and leaned against the railing. Kira now only saw her in profile. She spoke slowly, as if each word had to be forced out of her throat. "They hit one of the colonies. It was organized. Deliberate. And Apollo couldn't fight back. Queen Margret had decided that the best way to curtail a rebellion was to significantly reduce the military strength in the Apollo. I mean, who would attack us? Why waste the effort? We never bother any other countries. We never hold back from releasing our own technological advances. There's nothing to _want _from us. Especially not from our space colonies. No one expected a terrorist attack of this caliber to be aimed in our direction."

Talking about this, Kira could see, was clearly upsetting her. He noticed that her hands were gripping the railing quite tightly.

"The Sappho colony held out for three days. It was more than enough time to provide backup. And yet… My fleet was supposed to be the first to launch. We were to be the first wave of relief. They were expecting us. Then… something political happened, I suppose." Carmen paused and took a breath. "I swear, we were right there in Oslo, about to launch, when we got our orders: "Stop and wait for further instructions". We waited for two days. By the time we did launch, we were no longer relief forces. We were only going there to clean up the mess."

Carmen broke off. Kira asked, "Did you ever find out why they stopped you?"

She shook her head. "It didn't matter. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of people could have been prevented. There are no politics to justify that."

Her voice made it sound final, but Kira frowned again. "Why hadn't I heard about this?"

Carmen blinked. Once, then twice, as if confused. "What do you mean?"

"When did this happen? Why weren't there any news stories?"

"I don't know." Carmen shrugged, dismissive. "It was probably hushed up outside of Scandinavia. "

"Why?"

"Why do you think, Kira?" she snapped. "March 12, C.E. 69. Look it up if you're so curious."

He flinched. "Okay," he said.

"Okay," she replied.

They stood there, with another awkward, extended pause between on them.

"So are you going to fly it?" she finally asked.

"I don't suppose I have much of a choice, do I?" he said shortly.

"No," Carmen said. "No, I don't suppose you do."

"Would _you_ have had me toss the lifeboat back out?" Kira demanded.

Carmen didn't so much as take time to think about the answer. "Yes."

Her assuredness caught him by surprise. "You mean it?" he said. "You really mean it?"

She stared him down. Carmen had learned that a silent gaze was sometimes all that was needed to establish control, and to show power.

"Ensign Badgiruel had been right," she said coolly. "Relief forces would have picked them up, probably within the day. They would have been safe. An understaffed, under attack military vessel is the last place they should have ended up. Especially since their savior is reluctant to protect them again."

There was nothing more to say to that. Kira stood there, stunned. Carmen broke eye contact, turned on her heel, and walked away. He didn't call her back, and Carmen wasn't particularly surprised about that. _It was necessary_, she told herself. _He can distrust you, he can hate you, but he _must _fight. There is no other way. _She stuffed her hands into her pockets.

Seconds after exiting the hangar, Carmen ran into one of the soldiers from the bridge. He was holding a tablet in his hands.

"What?" she snapped at him when he stopped her.

Her hostility caught him off guard. "I…uh, Major… Vagner is it?"

She glared at him for another second, then dropped her shoulders. "Sorry," she said briefly. Then, in a voice more tired than angry, she said, "What is it?"

"I was hoping for your assistance, Major Vagner."

Before he could go on, Carmen raised her hand. "Dispense with the formalities. I feel like you're addressing my mother. Just Carmen will do."

He blinked rapidly, unsure of what to do, and clearly uncomfortable with all of it. He had probably drawn the short stick and been forced to be the one to talk to her.

Carmen sighed again. "Or you can call me Major, if that makes you feel better."

To that he conceded. "Major," he said. "The students from Morgenroete mentioned that you were their teacher."

"Yes," she said. Then, because she was compelled to add it, she said, "I am a graduate student. Just to make that clear."

"I… never said you weren't."

"Okay," she said, feeling defensive. "Just making sure."

"Can you vouch for their characters?"

"The kids?" Carmen raised her eyebrows. "They're fine, I guess. Good students, all of them. Nothing spectacular, but I never had any issues with them."

"What class did you teach?"

"I had them for a robotics course last semester," she said.

"Aerospace engineering?"

"That's right."

He looked thoughtful. "Okay. That's good."

Suddenly suspicious, she said, "Why?"

He told her straight. "They volunteered to assist with the operation of this ship."

"Really?" Carmen blinked. That she had not expected. While part of her immediately rebelled against the thought of allowing minors to participate in war, another couldn't help but feel… admiration. "Are you going to allow them to?" she said.

"That's what I'm hoping to figure out," the man replied. "I'm trying to get a gauge on their strengths."

Carmen thought about it. "They're from a technical college," she said. "They can do anything if you teach them how. The blond guy in the glasses - Sai - he's smart. Good with computers. He can handle a big job. And the other guy, with the brown hair…"

"Tolle Koenig," the man provided, glancing down at the tablet.

"Yeah, him. He's got pretty good hand-eye coordination. He ran a lot of the robot simulations. You can probably put him as a co-pilot."

He nodded. "Good. What about the other two?"

Carmen scratched her head. "The girl… Miriallia. She's a utility man. Put her wherever you need someone most. She's thorough, so she'll take some time before she's confident in her job, but she can do practically anything you want her to do."

"And Kuzzey Buskirk?"

"Underachiever."

The soldier raised his eyebrows. Three glowing reviews followed by this surely came as a surprise. "Really?"

Carmen nodded.

"Okay then," he acquiesced. "Thanks. That's all I needed."

"Cool." Carmen put her hands back in her pockets, slouched a little, and walked past him.

She didn't get far. "Uhh… Hold on," the man said.

Carmen stopped. She turned. She pinned him with her gaze. _Be very careful about what you say next_, her eyes said.

The soldier said, "Lieutenant Ramius has formally requested that you not be present on the bridge during the upcoming melee."

Carmen had a few choice words she would have liked to say to Lieutenant Ramius. She restrained herself and instead said, quite calmly, "Is that so?"

"She has granted you full servicing privileges to the Strike, though. You can maintain the machine in between battles."

Carmen had to blink a few times in order to wrap her mind around what he was saying. Her next words came out through gritted teeth. "She has _granted _me the _privilege_?"

The soldier, quite wisely, backed up a few feet.

But Carmen wasn't standing for this. "What's your name?" she said.

"Petty Officer 2nd Class Chandra."

"Well then, Petty Officer Chandra." Carmen said, "You do realize that all I have ever done has been to help you people? That without me, we would all most likely be dead right now?"

He could have retaliated by saying that it was her meddling that made her a vital character to begin with. That if she hadn't put that lock on the OS, there would have been no use for her. No, Petty Officer Chandra hit far, far more below the belt than she was expecting.

He said: "You should know that there are security cameras in the hanger. We can get both an audio and a visual feed on the bridge."

It took Carmen a second. First to realize what that meant, then to realize what that really meant. And right there, she knew they had her. Her attack fell and clattered on the floor, completely useless. "Oh," was all she could say.

Now he was the one to walk away from her. "There seem to be some holes in your story," he said. "Kira Yamato may not know what they are, but we sure do. So for now, Major Vagner, please accept that the commanding officers of this ship actually do care about the politics, and what _exactly _your presence means for the Atlantic Federation. At best, we could be accused of harboring a fugitive. At worst… well, you can figure that out on your own."

He left her, alone, to try and wonder how exactly she was supposed to get out of this mess.

* * *

_Archangel, _Barracks

* * *

What was she to do? There had been few times when Carmen had felt as helpless as she did right now. She hated being on the sidelines, watching a battle. Not being able to contribute.

_Idiots, _she thought venomously. _Bloody, stupid idiots. _This was the very reason why she despised bureaucratic machinations.

Banned from the bridge and with nothing to do, Carmen wandered back to the barracks of the ship. She ate a cold sandwich in the cafeteria, then, following Murdoch's advice, poured herself a cup of something caffeinated. She loitered around the entrance with the tea in her hand. All the other refugees around her appeared calm, finally settled in, and Carmen felt like she was the only one with butterflies in her stomach. It wasn't right. More people should be tense, seeing as they were going to be attacked at any moment.

The waiting game was the worst. It was one thing if she was scrambling to finish writing code and maintaining the machine. It was quite another when both mobile suits were completely ready for battle. Carmen had long ago unlocked the Strike. She had been told by another mechanic that Kira had declared that he was more than capable of servicing his own machine. Now she had fidgety fingers and a restless mind.

_At least these folks like me, _she thought as she people-watched the Orb refugees. At this point, not actively hating was the equivalent of liking. Yet Carmen was certain that if she introduced herself with her title, more than a few of the civilians would regard her wearily and shuffle off to a safer distance. Terms like 'terrorist' and 'liberator' were so easily interchangeable. _Major Carmen Vagner of the 2__nd__ Orbital Fleet of Apollo. _She mulled over the title. _Captain Carmen Vagner of Her Majesties' 21__st__ Royal Air Squadron. _That one, to her ears, didn't sound much better. The title, the identity, the prestige… she had given all that up. They all had.

She lingered a little longer, silently watching. Only one person paid her any mind. It was a woman, with dark skin and black, curly hair, who gave her a suspicious look. Carmen noted how attractive she was before casually turning away. She purposefully didn't fidget around with the sweater.

And then, the waiting ended.

Alarms sounded up and down the hallway. Someone on the loudspeakers announced, "_All crew, report to level one battle stations._"

Two men - Petty Officer Chandra and the Petty Officer from the CIC - ran out of the sleeping quarters, haphazardly pulling on their clothes. "Man, I just fell asleep," Chandra complained. They ran past her without another glance, too preoccupied with the upcoming battle.

The civilians suddenly became restless. They worriedly looked around, asking each other what exactly they were supposed to do in this situation. Carmen understood their sentiments. She drained the tea, crushed the plastic cup, and chucked it into a nearby waste bin. Then she stuffed her hands into her pockets, found a spot on the wall, and leaned against it.

There was nothing to do.

The alarm became muted - all the crew had, evidently, arrived to where they needed to be - and an unsettling silence fell on them. Carmen stared at the floor and wondered if Kira had launched by now. The lights kept flashing, white and red, white and red. She counted ninety seconds before the first shock hit the ship.

The tremor shook the walls. They heard it, too - it sounded like a small explosion, and a little too close for comfort at that. There were cries among the civilians, of surprise, of fear. Carmen wondered what had been hit, and how important it had been. Then she wondered if there had been soldiers there, if the _Archangel _was beginning its own death count. She bit the inside of her cheek in frustration, and tasted blood.

_Calm yourself, soldier_, she ordered. She closed her eyes and, almost unthinkingly, touched the tattoo on the inside of her right arm. She took three deep breaths, one right after another. Then she opened her eyes.

Not too far from her, she noticed, were an odd pair. It was a mother, who looked to be not much older than Carmen, and with her was a small child. A little girl, probably around six or seven years old. She was hugging her mom for comfort, and the woman was doing everything she could to console her child. It was no easy feat, especially when another hit shook the room again.

_Huh,_ Carmen thought. She watched them for one moment longer, then walked over. She sat down on the floor, cross-legged, near the two of them.

"Hey kiddo," she said, holding out two fists. "Pick a hand."

It was a gamble, she knew, to see if the kid would respond to her. But Carmen was aware that her face just naturally looked kind, and her long, blonde hair softened up the sharpness of her cheekbones. If she wanted to, she could appear to be friendly and open, and children tended to pick up on that.

This one did too. She raised her head away from her mother and regarded Carmen. Then she glanced back at her mom for permission. The woman, probably just as surprised as her daughter, nodded. The girl thought about it, then picked Carmen's right fist.

Carmen smiled, holding the suspense a little longer, then opened her hand. On her palm rested the little Buddha statue.

"Do you know who this is?" she asked, offering the necklace to the kid.

The girl shook her head 'no'.

"This is Gautama Buddha. He's a pretty cool guy from India. You know where that is?"

She nodded. "In Asia," she pipped up.

"That's right. Very good." When the girl still hadn't reached out to take the statue, probably out of shyness, Carmen decided to simply put the necklace on her. The cord was too long, and Buddha almost reached her stomach.

"My name's Carmen," she said.

"I'm Elle," the girl replied.

Out of respect, Carmen glanced at the mother as well. "Sarah," she said at her inquisitive look.

Carmen returned her attention to the girl. "Elle," she said, "would you like to hear a story?"

They could still hear the fighting going on. Some of the refugees had discovered monitors with which they could see the action. Many had crowded around them, watching with bated breath. Elle glanced in their direction, then back to Carmen. She nodded.

Carmen picked up the small Buddha and placed him in Elle's hands. "Buddha wasn't always Buddha," she said. "When he was born, he was Prince Siddhartha. His mother, Queen Maya, had a dream of a white elephant around the time of his birth. This was an omen - a sign, that said that her child would either grow up to be a great emperor or a great religious teacher.

"Now Siddhartha's dad, King Śuddhodana - I know, they all have long, weird names - , wanted his kid to be a great emperor. So he decided to hide all the bad things in the world from his son, and to raise him in luxury. If Siddhartha didn't know suffering, then he would have no reason to be religious. All around the palace, King Śuddhodana made sure that there were only happy, smiling people."

There was a collective gasp from the group watching the monitors. Carmen ignored them. If they survived this, she could get the footage from the battle at a later time. Right now, distracting Elle was far more important.

"Then, one day, while Siddhartha was going around the city, meeting his subjects, he saw an old man. Siddhartha was amazed - he had never seen an aging person before. The man didn't look like any of the happy, healthy, smiling people Siddhartha always saw. He had wrinkled skin, and white hair, and his back was crooked like a question mark. He needed a cane to walk around. Siddhartha immediately thought something was wrong. But Channa, his charioteer - the man who was driving him around - explained that this was normal. All people grow old. Such was the way of life."

By now Sarah had sat down and Elle was nestled in her lap. They were both listening to the story, no longer paying attention to the battle that was going around them. The ship took another hit, but this one seemed farther away than the first had been.

Carmen continued with the tale. "The next day, Siddhartha went out into the city again. This time, as he was driving around, he saw a sick man. Now, Siddhartha had never seen a sick man before either. This man was pale, paler than all the rest, and his face looked a little green. There were bags under his eyes, and he was very thin. Again, Siddhartha was amazed. And again, Channa explained that this was normal. People got sick. Such was the way of life.

"On the third day, when Siddhartha went out with Channa, he saw something that was far worse than old age and disease. He saw a corpse. A body of a man who had died. Siddhartha was shocked. He had never seen what happened to someone when they passed away. Once more, Channa told him that this was normal. People died. Such was the way of life.

Elle was listening with raptured regard. Carmen was pleasantly surprised that this story kept her attention. She had worried that Elle would have wanted a story that was a little more fantastical.

"Then, on their way back to the palace, Siddhartha saw one more person. This man was not old, nor was he sick. Yet he was thin, and bald, and he walked around in the clothes of a beggar. But he never asked for anything. When the prince offered him a coin, the man refused him. This person, Channa said, was a wandering ascetic. A man who renounced the world - who had given up all the nice things in life - in order to escape from the fear of death and suffering.

"That night, Siddhartha couldn't sleep. He walked around the palace, but he took no pleasure from the beautiful things he saw. Musicians and dancing girls were lying around, asleep, exhausted from a celebration from the previous evening. Siddhartha watched them and thought about how they would all grow old, fall sick, and die. And he realized that he could no longer be content with his life as a prince. That very night he sneaked out of the palace. He traded his fine silks for the rags of a beggar. He shaved his hair. Just like the ascetic man he had seen, Siddhartha decided that he would try to find a way to no longer fear death and suffering. He decided to try and find Enlightenment."

On that note, several people cheered. Carmen stopped and looked over at them, surprised at the impeccable timing. "Is it over?" she said.

In response, someone went on the loudspeakers and announced: "_ZAFT forces are retreating from the area. We are now preparing to dock at Artemis._"

Opposite her, Sarah let out a breath of relief. Carmen hardly payed that any attention. She was already on her feet, briskly walking to to exit.

"Wait!"

Carmen stopped, and looked back. It was Elle who had called her. "What happens next?" she said.

Carmen hesitated. Her gaze travelled from Elle's blue eyes to the little Buddha that was still clutched in her hand. She returned and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"That's a story for another time," she told the girl. "Right now, I have to go see the boy who was protecting us. He's a good friend, and I want to make sure that he's okay. You hold on to that necklace. I'll tell you more the next time I see you."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Carmen set off again. Then, ignoring the sudden flash of pain in her side, she ran. By the time she reached the hanger, the room had been pressurized, and there were people crowded around the cockpit of the Strike. Carmen's heart jumped to her throat. She immediately flagged down one of the mechanics.

"What happened?" she said. "Is Kira alright? Is he injured?"

The man looked like he was about to shrug her off, then, upon seeing her panicked expression, reconsidered. "He's not injured," he said. "As far as we know. The MS took no damage during the battle. He's just… not coming out."

Carmen nodded, and relinquished her death grip on his elbow. She hadn't even been aware that she had grabbed him. Like a roller coaster, her heart went from her throat to her stomach.

_Combat shock, _she thought. _It must be. _She shouldered her way through the crowd, intent on getting to her student.

But when she arrived, she saw that Mu La Flaga had already done her job for her. She only saw his back as he coaxed out his co-pilot. "Hey, it's okay," she heard him say in a soothing voice. "The _Archangel _is safe, and so are you. You did good, kid."

Kira's shaky voice responded. "Is… is it always like that?"

"First time's the worst."

Carmen stepped back as Mu helped a very jolted Kira out onto the scaffold. He looked at her and gave one quick nod. Carmen wasn't sure what it meant. Kira barely even noticed she was there. The older pilot led away the younger one and, once again, Carmen found herself without anything to do. She almost felt hurt by it. _They're comrades now, _she reasoned. _They need to bond._

Now that the mobile suit was clear for maintenance, the mechanics set to work. Carmen searched for Murdoch. She found him by the Mobius, looking over a tablet with one of his workers.

"Mr. Murdoch," she called. "How soon can I start?"

He looked up at her and, Carmen swore to it, his tanned skin became a shade paler. He tossed the tablet back to the mechanic, and propelled off the floor to meet her. He gripped her elbow and said in a tight voice, "_Get _out_ of here_."

Now she really did feel hurt. And shocked. And offended. This man, she had thought, would be accepting of her help despite her backstory. Evidently, she was wrong. "What are you talking about?" she said. "I'm to service the Strike. You _need _me."

Murdoch shook his head, not allowing her to continue. "Go back to the barracks," he said. "Pretend you're one of the civilians. _Blend. In._"

The urgency in her voice made her question her previous assumption. Before she had time to consider what it meant, several doors to the hanger simultaneously opened. White-clad Eurasian soldiers streamed in, all of them armed to the teeth. Carmen suddenly found herself facing the barrel of a very large sub-machine gun, pointed straight at her head.

_Oh, _she thought. _That's what you meant. _


End file.
